The government of Xinxian county, in the city of Xinyang, on Sunday reported that one of its new cases had been confirmed 34 days after the patient returned from a mid-January visit to Wuhan. He had been sent to hospital with suspected symptoms on January 28, but twice tested negative before testing positive on February 16. A further two people who attended family gatherings with the man in Xinxian were reported as infected, while three were suspected cases or under hospital quarantine.

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The county government announced it would extend the home quarantine period from 14 to 21 days for residents who had been to Hubei or had contact with people who had been there.

It also reported a case that was confirmed 94 days after the patient’s contact with a relative from Hubei. The patient had taken care of his father-in-law, who arrived from Wuhan on November 13 and died days later. The son-in-law continued to stay in the father-in-law’s house until January 31. However, the government statement said the origin of the son-in-law’s infection had yet to be identified.

Zhuhai, in the southern Guangdong province, last week reported two cases with incubation periods longer than 14 days. Similar cases have also been reported in Anhui and Shandong provinces.

Annual political gathering postponed

China’s annual parliamentary meeting scheduled for early March has been postponed because of the outbreak.

State news agency Xinhua reported that the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) would discuss the delay later this month – effectively indicating that it would be put back.

Meanwhile, leaders of the political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), also met on Monday and discussed postponing its March full meeting.

The twin parliamentary gatherings, commonly known as the “two sessions”, were originally scheduled to open on March 3 (CPPCC) and March 5 (NPC). The meetings bring together more than 5,000 members of the country’s political elite to discuss government annual reports and budgets.

New mask factory for Beijing

Beijing will set up a new mask factory within just six days to meet soaring demand for protective gear in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday.

The factory, to be converted from an industrial building by China Construction First Group, would be able to turn out 250,000 masks each day, it said, adding that work began on Monday and was set to be completed by Saturday.

The rapid pace and makeshift nature of the plant mirror measures taken in Wuhan, where buildings have been converted to treat infected patients, and hospitals built from scratch, in days.

Producers of masks and other protective equipment around the world have been unable to meet demand in the wake of the outbreak, which has killed more than 1,700 people in China.

Last month, CMmask, a Chinese mask maker that supplies 30 per cent of the domestic market, said daily orders for 5 million masks were more than 10 times its usual level.

Hubei party chief sets priorities

Ying Yong, the new Communist Party chief of Hubei, presided over a meeting of leaders of the province’s Prevention and Control Command on Sunday afternoon, The Beijing News reported.

In his first public actions since becoming the province’s party chief, Ying stressed the need for less bureaucracy to ensure the command could act quickly and decisively, and said it was crucial to improve distribution of medical resources and education on disease prevention and control.

The former Shanghai mayor replaced Jiang Chaoliang – the most high-profile official to be dismissed during the outbreak – as Hubei party secretary on Thursday. The move suggested that the country’s top leadership was dissatisfied with the province’s response to the crisis and was holding Hubei officials accountable.

‘Impossible to predict’

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said late on Sunday that the future path of the outbreak was “impossible” to predict, as international experts began meeting their counterparts in China.

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Mi Feng, a spokesman for the National Health Commission, said on Sunday that the proportion of people confirmed to be infected who were critically ill had fallen to 22 per cent on Saturday, from 32 per cent on January 27, which he said showed that “the effect of the coronavirus controls is appearing”.

The contagion has spread to at least 25 other countries, sickening nearly 700 and killing five outside mainland China.

Fresh military support

About 1,200 military medical specialists were sent to Wuhan on Monday by military aircraft and railway to help combat the outbreak.

It is the second phase of the military deployment of 2,600 medical staff announced by China’s People’s Liberation Army on Thursday. The latest arrivals will work at a new hospital that was due to open in May but has been refurbished with 700 beds to treat coronavirus patients, state broadcaster CCTV said.

The first batch of 1,400 are working in another hospital, which is able to treat 860 patients.

Wuhan nurse mourned

Another health care worker, a 59-year-old male nurse named Liu Fan, died as a result of the coronavirus on Friday evening, Wuhan Wuchang Hospital said in a post on Weibo on Saturday.

The National Health Commission had said on Friday that 1,716 medical workers, including 1,502 from Hubei, had been infected with the coronavirus – 3.8 per cent of mainland China’s total – and six had died.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of such a good nurse,” the hospital said in response to Liu’s death. “We sincerely hope that all of our medical staff will be safe and healthy and return safely after the battle [against the virus].”

Help for Chinese businesses

The move is expected to pave the way for further measures, set to be announced on Thursday, to lower borrowing costs and reduce the financial strains on companies.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse and Reuters