SANYA, February 20. /TASS/. The Sanya authorities (the province of Hainan) are planning to create a special bureau for the rehabilitation and modernization of the tourism sector, affected by the outbreak of pneumonia caused by a new type of coronavirus, reported Xinhua. 

This is the Sanya administration's initiative. The city Office for Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports, together with 10 Hainan travel agencies, will be involved in the project. The bureau will, in particular, organize events for promoting tourist potential, as well as global marketing research and joint advertising campaigns with airlines.

The Sanya authorities are taking the necessary measures to support local travel agencies amid coronavirus oubreak which affected the tourist flow to China, the agency notes. 

On December 31, 2019, the Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization about an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan, an economic and industrial megalopolis with a population of 11 million.

The virus was identified on January 7 as 2019-nCoV. Apart from China, 29 other countries and territories, including Russia, have reported confirmed coronavirus cases.

The World Health Organization declared the new coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, characterizing it as an epidemic with multiple locations. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated on February 11 that the organization gave the novel coronavirus an official name of COVID-19.

According to the latest reports, over 75,770 cases of patients infected with the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in China and other countries. The virus’ death toll has hit the number of 2,130, yet more than 16,880 patients have recovered from the disease.

There rae 168 cases of coronavirus infection on the Island of Hainan.