The new coronavirus has so far left 717 people dead in China, where it appeared last December, health officials in central China's Hubei Province announced.
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This figure is higher than the number of people who died of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, atypical pneumonia) - around 650 - in the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong in 2002-2003. In addition, 2,841 additional cases of contamination were officially registered in Hubei, bringing the total number of patients to more than 34,000.
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