Coronavirus in China: Death toll reaches 56, over 2000 infected

New Delhi : The death toll from coronavirus in China has risen to 56 and over 2000 people have been diagnosed positive to the virus, said authorities on Sunday.

Fifteen more people have died and at least 688 new cases of the coronavirus have now been confirmed, according to the National Health Commission.

Among the new deaths, 13 were in Hubei, the province at the heart of the outbreak, while Shanghai reported its first death.

At least 52 people have now died in total in Hubei, two in central Henan province, one in Heilongjiang in the northeast and one in Hebei in the north.

On Saturday, Chinese Premier Xi Jinping claimed that China is passing through a grave situation as authorities are trying to fight out the respiratory illness.

Wuhan and more than a dozen other cities in the province have been locked down in a rapidly expanding quarantine effort marked by transport shutdowns and other restrictions on movement.

The previously unknown virus has caused global concern because of its similarity to the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) pathogen, which killed hundreds across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

The deadly virus attack has come at a time when China is having a lot of tourists coming in to celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday, China's most important festival.

The virus has spread nationwide in China and cases have been reported in several other countries as far away as the United States, France and Australia.