Coronavirus: Xi Jinping focuses on long-term battle as more countries report cases

Number of new infections in mainland China falls to lowest level since it locked down cities at centre of epidemic in January

EU raises risk level to ‘moderate to high’ as death toll in Europe from Covid-19 reaches 38

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (centre) on Monday stressed the need to step up research on vaccines, drugs and testing. Photo: Xinhua

Teddy Ng,Gigi Choy,Simone McCarthyandJevans Nyabiage

Published: 11:25pm, 2 Mar 2020Updated: 1:40am, 3 Mar 2020

President Xi Jinping put the focus on containing the coronavirus in the long term, including through vaccine research, as more nations reported their first cases and deaths, while new infections in mainland China fell to their lowest level since it took emergency measures to tackle the crisis.

Xi made the remarks as the deaths attributed to Covid-19, the disease caused by the new virus strain, rose to more than 3,000, with 42 new fatalities reported in mainland China alone on Monday.

Meanwhile, the European Union’s disease control agency raised its risk level for Covid-19 from “moderate” to “moderate to high”, with the death toll from the disease now at 38 on the continent. But the EU was keen to keep people moving across borders in Europe.

“So far no member states have any indication of any internal border checks in the Schengen area,” said Ylva Johansson, EU commissioner for home affairs.

In mainland China, the National Health Commission reported 202 new infections on Monday, the lowest number of new cases since January 22, the day before emergency measures – including placing entire cities in lockdown – were first imposed in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

The commission said 196 of the new cases were in Hubei province, and all but three had occurred in the provincial capital of Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic. As of Sunday, 44,462 patients had recovered from the illness.