SHANGHAI/TOKYO: More than 2,600 new cases of a coronavirus have been confirmed in China with deaths up by 143, health officials said on Saturday (Feb 15), as the United States urged its citizens to leave a virus-struck cruise ship under quarantine in Japan.
China is struggling to get the world's second-largest economy back to work after an extended Lunar New Year holiday with the central bank pledging to support companies, but travel bans and quarantine orders are frustrating business as usual.
The death toll rose by 143 to 1,523, it said, with most of the new deaths in central Hubei province and in particular the provincial capital of Wuhan, a city of 11 million people where the outbreak began in December. A trend has been difficult to discern especially after a decision by authorities this week to reclassify as confirmed cases a backlog of suspected cases.
"Those who refuse to accept home or centralised observation and other prevention and control measures will be held accountable under the law," it said. "We understand this is frustrating and an adjustment, but these measures are consistent with the careful policies we have instituted to limit the potential spread of the disease," the embassy said.
The United States has imposed some of the toughest curbs on travellers from China even though the WHO has not recommended travel bans, and Chinese officials have criticised an"over-reaction" by some countries."The impact of the epidemic on the Chinese economy will be short term and temporary," Qin Gang said at the Munich Security Conference.
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