Beijing: China on Sunday reported 27 new deaths from coronavirus, the lowest number of fatalities in more than a month, taking the death toll to 3,097, while the COVID-19 infections for the first time fell below 50 since the disease surfaced in Hubei province in January.
All the 27 deaths occurred in the virus-hit central Hubei province, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said.
The confirmed cases for the first time fell below 50 since COVID-19 surfaced in Hubei province in January. Of the 44 new cases reported on Saturday, 41 were in Wuhan in Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak.
The overall confirmed cases on the mainland has risen to 80,695 by the end of Saturday. The total number of deaths reached 3,097.
Over 20,500 patients were still undergoing treatment and 57,065 discharged after recovery, the NHC said.
Also on Saturday, three coronavirus cases in people arriving from abroad were reported, including two in Beijing and one in Gansu province. By the end of Saturday, 63 such cases had been reported, the NHC said.
By the end of Saturday, 109 confirmed cases including two deaths in Hong Kong, 10 confirmed cases in Macao and 45 in Taiwan including one death were reported.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Sunday said the global death toll of coronavirus surged to 3,583 as the dreaded Covid-19 spread to 101 countries and regions.
A total of 105,427 confirmed cases were reported globally as of Sunday, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency quoted WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib.
According to WHO’s daily situation report on Saturday, there has been 3,486 deaths worldwide due to the coronavirus.
Colombia, the Vatican, Peru, Togo and Slovakia have reported cases of COVID-19 for the first time in the past 24 hours, the WHO said in a report on Saturday.
The world health body has revised the transmission classification of Iceland, Palestine and Cameroon from “imported cases only” to “local transmission”, bringing the total number of countries and regions where local transmission emerged to 45 in addition to China.
It said the spread of COVID-19 can be significantly slowed or even reversed through implementing robust containment and control activities.
