Wuhan coronavirus: China will contain ‘demon’ outbreak, Xi Jinping says as death toll mounts
- Chinese president pledges transparent and timely release of information about the illness
- Respiratory expert says outbreak might peak in the next week or 10 days
Meeting World Health Organisation director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Xi said that China was confident of containing the crisis and that he believed the international community would assess the spread in an “objective, fair, calm and rational” manner.
“The epidemic is a demon and we cannot let this demon hide,” state media quoted Xi as saying.
“The Chinese government has always adopted an open, transparent and responsible attitude to timely release of information on the epidemic, domestically and to other countries.”
The meeting came as the number of confirmed cases worldwide jumped to more than 4,600, with 106 deaths – all of them in mainland China. There were 1,771 new infections in mainland China on Tuesday – the biggest one-day jump since the outbreak started in December.
Various nations, including South Korea, Japan, the United States, Germany, Spain and India, said they were considering plans to evacuate their citizens stranded in Wuhan, Hubei province – the epicentre of the outbreak.