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Wuhan coronavirus death rate expected to go down soon, officials say

According to recent data, the number of people infected with 2019-nCoV in China has exceeded 20,400, with 420 recorded deaths

MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/. China’s coronavirus death rate in Wuhan is expected to go down soon due to the measures taken by the Chinese government to combat the virus, deputy head of the medical control department of China’s National Health Commission Jiao Yahui said during a press conference on Tuesday.

"We believe that in the near future, we’ll be able to see the results [of the measures taken by the government to combat the coronavirus], and that the death rate in Wuhan will gradually decline," she said.

According to the official, the death rate in Wuhan has currently reached 4.9%, compared to 3.1% in the Hubei province and 0.16% in other regions of China.

The high death rate in Hubei and Wuhan came as a result of a lack of hospital beds for seriously ill persons. "Before, we used to treat severely ill patients in three specialized hospitals with just 110 hospital beds," Jiao Yahui stated. She added that the situation should improve after the construction of two designated hospitals in Wuhan.

The first 1,000-bed Chinese hospital built from scratch near Wuhan received its first patients on Tuesday morning. The second facility will be built within about 15 days.

On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in the city of Wuhan - a large trade and industrial center in central China populated by 11 million people. The city has since been closed off for entry and exit. Foreign states are evacuating their citizens from Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province.

According to recent data, the number of people infected with 2019-nCoV in China has exceeded 20,400, with 420 recorded deaths. There have been two cases of death from coronavirus outside mainland China - in Hong Kong and in the Philippines.

Cases of coronavirus have been detected in 24 countries outside of China, including Russia. On January 30, WHO declared an international public health emergency over the outbreak of 2019-nCoV.