Coronavirus death toll rises to 803, surpasses SARS fatalities

Wuhan : The number of deaths in China due to deadly coronavirus has risen to 803, surpassing the number of fatalities registered during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus in 2002-2003.

A total of 774 people were killed by the SARS virus.

Cut to present, China has officially registered over 30,000 positive cases, including new 2,147 cases in the central province where the deadly virus had started growing.

The new virus is believed to have emerged last year in a market that sells wild animals in Hubei’s capital Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak, before spreading across the country.

The WHO on Saturday claimed that the number of cases rising in China have now stabilized but it would be too early to say anything about it.

A 60-year-old US citizen diagnosed with the virus died on Thursday in Wuhan, according to the US embassy.

A Japanese man in his 60s with a suspected coronavirus infection also died in hospital in Wuhan, the Japanese foreign ministry said.

The only confirmed fatalities outside the mainland are a Chinese man in the Philippines and a 39-year-old man in Hong Kong.