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China allocates $43.5 million to fight pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan - TV

The Chinese National Development and Reform Commission has already approved the allocation of urgent financial aid from the central budget

BEIJING, January 27. /TASS/. The Chinese government has allocated 300 million yuan ($43.5 million) to counter the novel coronavirus causing pneumonia in the city of Wuhan and Hubei Province adjacent to it, China’s Central TV said Monday.

According to the Central TV, the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission has already approved the allocation of urgent financial aid from the central budget. The funds will be used to construct two hospitals for those who contracted the pneumonia as well as to purchase specialized medical equipment.

According to the official data, the number of coronavirus cases exceeded 2,700 while 80 people died from it. Most cases (1423 infected and 76 deaths) are concentrated in the central Hubei Province with its administrative center of Wuhan. It is followed by the Guangdong Province (south) and Zhejiang Province (east). Sixty-eight patients were identified in Beijing, while the Heilongjiang Province neighboring Russia has 21 detected cases with one person dead from the disease.

On December 31, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of an unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhah - a large trade and industrial center in central China populated by 11 million people. On January 7, Chinese experts identified the infecting agent - coronavirus 2019-nCoV. The new type of coronavirus has already been identified in other countries - Australia, Malaysia, Nepal, France, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Singapore, the United States and Japan. The WHO recognized the pneumonia outbreak in China as a national emergency but stopped short of declaring an international one.

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