Coronavirus UPDATE: Chinese keep arriving in Thailand, UK man spreads virus to 11 others

The world death toll from the coronavirus outbreak continues to climb. Official figures put the Chinese figure at 1,016 deaths, up 108 from the day before, 1,018 worldwide. Outside of China there has only been 2 deaths reported – one in The Philippines and another in Hong Kong.

The number of cases of infection has also grown to 43,104. That’s up around 3,000 in the past 24 hours. Most of the deaths were in Hubei province, there were 103, though the number of infections reported has actually declined somewhat. Worldwide, 4,043 people have fully recovered from the virus.

Other news from around the world…

• Despite the confirmation of a new case of the 2019nCov coronavirus today, Thailand has neither restricted Chinese tourists from entering the kingdom or dropped its visa-on-arrival fee waiver, implemented last year to attract Chinese.

Thailand hasn’t imposed any bans on tourists or travellers since the outbreak of the virus, though officials are screening passengers on arrival on flights from China, and now require a health certificate to enter the country. Read more about that story HERE.

• China has “removed”, or side-lined several senior officials over their handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Party secretary for the Hubei Provincial Health Commission, and the chief of the commission, were among those sacked from their jobs. They are the most senior officials to be demoted at this stage.

A deputy director of the local Chinese Red Cross was also removed for “dereliction of duty” over alleged regularities with the handling of donations. According to Chinese state media, there have been hundreds of sackings, investigations and warnings across Hubei and other provinces.

• One of the people evacuated from Wuhan to the US last week has now tested positive to coronavirus. The patient, one of 167 passengers on a chartered State Department flight out of China carrying mostly US citizens, has now been transferred to a hospital in San Diego. It is the 13th confirmed case in the US and the seventh in California.

• Nine members of the same Hong Kong family became infected with coronavirus after allegedly sharing a hot pot meal – hot pot is a large central boiling pot of broth which diners cook their own meat and vegetables. The hot pot meal was shared on January 26.

Health officials confirmed the 10 new cases of the virus on the weekend. All but one were reported as belonging to the same family. The tenth case involved a 70 year old man, unrelated to the family. The new cases bring the number of cases in Hong Kong to 36.

All 10 were admitted for isolation and management at Ruttonjee Hospital and Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital respectively.

• A British man, who apparently contracted coronavirus on a business trip to Asia, has spread the virus to 11 other people across 3 countries.

The man, in his 50s, had visited Singapore for a sales conference for two days in January, as reported by The Guardian. Around 100 people attended the conference and one participant was from Wuhan, the Chinese city, described as the epicentre of the 2019-nCoV. Medical officials believe the UK man became infected at the conference.

Unaware that he’s contracted the virus, the man travelled from Singapore to a French ski resort, where he stayed with family for 4 days from January 24.

GRAPHIC: Worldometers