{"id":62022,"date":"2020-02-14T15:17:02","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T07:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=62022"},"modified":"2020-02-14T15:17:04","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T07:17:04","slug":"china-virus-death-toll-nears-1400","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=62022","title":{"rendered":"China virus death toll nears 1,400"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

BEIJING, Feb 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The death toll from China\u2019s virus
epidemic neared 1,400 on Friday, as the United States complained of a \u201clack
of transparency\u201d from Beijing over its handling of a crisis that has fuelled
global panic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly 64,000 people are now recorded as having been made ill by the virus
in China, with the last two days showing a steep rise after a change in
diagnostic methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Health Commission disclosed a statistical error, however,
saying it removed 108 deaths in Hubei that had been double-counted, but the nationwide toll still rose to 1,380 on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deepening crisis in China has caused fears of more global contagion,
with Vietnam locking down villages after finding new cases and Japan becoming the third place outside the mainland on Thursday to report a death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than two-dozen countries have now reported hundreds of cases among them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the World Health Organization has praised China\u2019s handling of the
epidemic \u2014 in contrast to its cover-up of the SARS outbreak in 2002-2003 \u2014
a top White House official on Thursday said Beijing should be more open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are a little disappointed that we haven\u2019t been invited in and we\u2019re a
little disappointed in the lack of transparency coming from the Chinese,\u201d
Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kudlow said President Xi Jinping had assured President Donald Trump that
Beijing would accept US help, but \u201cthey won\u2019t let us\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kudlow\u2019s comments contrasted with Trump\u2019s apparent confidence in China,
with the US leader telling a radio show that Xi is \u201cextremely capable\u201d and
that the US was \u201cworking with them\u201d and \u201csending a lot of people\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The extent of the epidemic seemed to deepen on Thursday after authorities
in central Hubei province, the epicentre of the crisis, started counting
patients who were \u201cclinically diagnosed\u201d via lung imaging, in addition to
those who undergo lab tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The revision added nearly 15,000 patients to Hubei\u2019s count in a single day,
with officials explaining that past cases were included. The first cases
emerged in December in Wuhan, Hubei\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WHO said the numbers included cases going back weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sharp one-day increase \u201cdoes not represent a significant change in the
trajectory of the outbreak,\u201d said Michael Ryan, head of WHO\u2019s health
emergencies programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move will ensure patients get treated as early as possible, instead of
having to wait for laboratory tests, health officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere have been some backlogs in testing and this is also going to help in
ensuring that people get adequate care,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, Hubei\u2019s health commission said another 116 people had died and
more than 4,800 new cases were reported. Of those cases, more than 3,000 were \u201cclinically diagnosed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is better to clinically diagnose and admit patients\u2026 than leaving
room for doubt,\u201d Tong Zhaohui, vice president of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, said Thursday in Hubei.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Health Commission reported five other deaths and 217 new cases elsewhere in China, as the number of new patients outside Hubei fell for a 10th straight day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities have placed some 56 million people in Hubei under quarantine
since late last month, in an unprecedented effort to stop the new coronavirus from spreading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some cities in Hubei tightened restrictions this week, sealing off
neighbourhoods in what they liken to \u201cwar-time\u201d measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under criticism at home over the handling of the crisis, China\u2019s Communist
Party sacked two top-ranking officials in Hubei, and replaced them with
senior cadres with security backgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several countries have banned arrivals from China, while major airlines
have halted flights to and from the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US State Department said it was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d about the
vulnerability of China\u2019s northern neighbour, North Korea, and offered to
support aid work in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Vietnam, authorities announced Thursday they were locking down the
commune of Son Loi, a farming region about 40 kilometres from
Hanoi, for 20 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest cluster of cases outside China is on a cruise ship quarantined
off Japan\u2019s coast, where 218 infections have now been confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outbreak has wreaked havoc with global events, with the World Mobile
Congress in Spain cancelled and the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens tournament and Formula One Grand Prix in Shanghai postponed. — NNN-AGENCIES
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIJING, Feb 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The death toll from China\u2019s virusepidemic neared 1,400 on Friday, as the United States complained of a \u201clackof transparency\u201d from Beijing over its handling of a crisis that has fuelledglobal panic. Nearly 64,000 people are now recorded as having been made ill by the virusin China, with the last two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,215],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62022"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62022\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}