Coronavirus update: Death toll in China up by 28, new deaths confirmed outside Wuhan

Beijing: On March 6, China reported 28 new deaths from coronavirus . The confirmed deaths have brought the nationwide toll to 3,070. So far 80,651 confirmed cases have been reported in mainland China so far.

According to the National Health Commission, there were 99 fresh cases of infection with a rise in new cases outside the epicenter of Hubei province for the 3rd consecutive day.

There were 25 new cases reported outside the central province and Mainland China had 99 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections were reported on Saturday. Most of these were in China’s northwestern Gansu province, between March 2 and March 5 from passengers who entered the provincial capital of Lanzhou on commercial flights from Iran.

Hubei has reported a downward trend for several weeks- at 74. Post January the cases have come down after quarantine measures were put in place.

According to the National Health Commission, the capital, Beijing reported 4 new cases on Friday of which 3 came from Italy. And there were also 3 cases in Shanghai that originated abroad, and 1 in Guangdong province on Friday

Earlier, the Chinese health authorities recommended the use of Roche’s drug for rheumatoid arthritis, Actemra, in the treatment of serious novel coronavirus patients, the media reported. China’s National Health Commission made the recommendation in the updated treatment guidelines for COVID-19 released on the pharma industry news site FiercePharma reported. The decision was taken after seeing promising results in clinical practice.

The Swiss drugmaker donated nearly $2 million worth of Actemra to China, its local operations said in a blog post.

Meanwhile, the Chinese women’s football team is to fly back to China from Sydney, Australia later on Thursday after its Olympic qualification playoffs against South Korea were proposed to be postponed to June amid COVID-19 concerns.

The two-legged playoffs were scheduled to take place in April. However, due to the escalating spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in South Korea, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) and its South Korean counterpart agreed to put off the two ties until June in a proposal submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for approval, a CFA source told Xinhua.

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