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Coronavirus death toll in China’s Hubei rises to 1,696, while 6,639 people recovered

6,639 people recovered

BEIJING, February 17. /TASS/. The number of people who contracted the novel coronavirus in central China’s Hubei Province over the whole outbreak period has now exceeded 58,100 people, with 1,696 of them dead and 6,639 recovered, the province’s health committee said Monday.

On Sunday morning, authorities reported more than 56,200 cases with 1,596 deaths and 5,623 recovered people. According to the data update, the death rate in Hubei is now 2.91%, an increase to 2.83% reported yesterday.

The statement issued points out that more than 41,100 people contracted the disease in the Hubei Province’s capital of Wuhan, considered to be the epicenter of the pneumonia outbreak. The cities of Xiaogan and Huanggang follow in second and third places with 3,200 and 2,800 cases respectively. Four other cities across the region are said to have more than 1,000 coronavirus cases each.

A pneumonia outbreak caused by the COVID-19 virus (previously called 2019-nCoV) was reported in China’s city of Wuhan - a large trade and industrial center in central China populated by 11 million people - in late December. The WHO declared it a global emergency, describing the outbreak as an epidemic with multiple epicenters.

The virus spread to 25 more countries, apart from China: Australia, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, India, Italy, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam. The WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak in China a global health emergency. Chinese authorities have confirmed more than 68,500 cases of the disease, over 1,665 people died, while more than 9,400 people are reported to have recovered.