Beijing: The death toll from the novel coronavirus surged past 811 in mainland China on Sunday, overtaking global fatalities in the 2002-03 SARS epidemic, even as the World Health Organization said the outbreak appeared to be “stabilising”.
With 89 more people dying — most in Hubei, the province at the centre of the outbreak — the toll is now higher than the 800 killed worldwide by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome nearly two decades ago, according to figures from national health authorities.
The latest data came after the WHO said the last four days had seen “some stabilising” in Hubei but warned it was “very early to make any predictions” and the figures can still “shoot up”.
Almost 37,200 people in China have now been infected by the new coronavirus, believed to have emerged late last year in a market that sold wild animals in Hubei’s capital Wuhan, before spreading across the nation and to other countries.
