Coronavirus: China reports 97 new deaths as Hubei’s cities reach month under lockdown
- Hubei province’s latest daily figures show rise in cases and small drop in new deaths
- Only one new death in China outside Hubei, but South Korean authorities report 28 per cent rise in infections
All but one of the deaths were in Hubei province, the outbreak’s epicentre, which reported 630 of the new infections as its provincial capital Wuhan marked a month under a lockdown imposed to contain the contagion. The other death was in Guangdong province.
Hubei’s figures, announced on Sunday, represented 264 more new cases and 10 fewer deaths than the previous day in the province, which has had 64,084 infections and 2,346 deaths since the outbreak was discovered in December. Thirty-two new infections have been reported in the province’s prisons, while 1,742 patients were discharged from hospital on Saturday.
Excluding Hubei, there were 18 new confirmed cases, a new low for this month, while 21 Chinese provinces said they had no new confirmed cases.
Between January 22 – the day before the lockdown – and Friday, Hubei recorded 64,209 new infections. On the eve of the lockdown, Wuhan had reported just 69 new cases, but by February 12 the daily total reached 14,840 as authorities started regarding clinically diagnosed patients as confirmed cases. Across mainland China, 76,585 new infections were recorded during the period.