More than 28,000 people in China are already infected. The severely affected city of Wuhan converts sports halls and exhibition grounds into sick beds. There is the 13th case in Germany.
Beijing / Yokohama / Munich (dpa) - With further evidence of the corona virus, the total number of infected people in Germany has increased to 13. The pathogen was detected in the woman of one of the patients from Bavaria, as the Bavarian Ministry of Health announced.
In the past few days, it had already become known that two children of the couple were also infected. According to doctors, like the mother, they are symptom-free. The father's health is also stable.
There are now 13 people across Germany who have become infected with the pathogen. The virus was detected in two of them after being taken to China from China last weekend. Like the family concerned, seven cases are related to the Bavarian automotive supplier Webasto in Stockdorf near Munich. A Chinese employee had been there, whose infection was only detected after her return to China.
It was announced on Thursday that the German coronavirus patient on the Spanish island of La Gomera also comes from Bavaria. The State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL) said that he had had contact with an employee of the Webasto company. At first the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" reported about it. The 26-year-old is currently isolated, it said.
Outside of mainland China, around 240 infections have now been confirmed in more than two dozen countries. Two deaths were reported in Hong Kong and the Philippines. The number of deaths in China rose again faster than before. As of Thursday, 73 more people died within a day, the Chinese Health Commission said in Beijing. As a result, the number of deaths in China rose to 563. The confirmed infections with the lung disease also rose sharply by 3,694 to 28,018 cases. The commission spoke of more than 24,000 suspected cases. There are also many infections among doctors and nurses.
After the discovery of virus cases on board, two cruise ships with a total of around 7,000 passengers and crew members were quarantined in Japan and Hong Kong. Ten more cases were found on the "Diamond Princess" off Yokohama. Among them, none of the eight Germans are on board, as Japan's Ministry of Health reported. There were four people from Japan, two from America, two from Canada, one each from New Zealand and from Taiwan. This means that 20 people on board are currently infected.
Hong Kong, where there are 21 cases, has largely closed its border with the People's Republic except for the airport and two crossings. Travelers from China must generally be quarantined for 14 days. Saudi Arabia prohibited all residents from traveling to China. This serves to prevent the spread of the virus, reported the state news agency SPA.
Since the infection from person to person was initially unknown, many doctors and nurses in China became infected in the first few weeks. An official listing, of which a photo circulated on the Internet, shows 500 cases in 13 Wuhan hospitals by January 20. However, the number could not be officially confirmed.
In order to cope with the increasing number of sick people, Wuhan is converting further halls and buildings into temporary bed storage. An exhibition hall in which 1,600 beds were set up accommodated patients for the first time. In two other facilities, 2,800 additional beds are to be made available. Especially patients with mild symptoms should be accommodated there.
In Wuhan alone, the number of confirmed infections rose by 1700 within one day to more than 10,100 by Thursday. The 28 selected hospitals designed for corona cases offer only 8,250 beds. The city also plans to convert hotels, schools, gyms, sports centers, and other sites into reception centers, according to the Xinhua news agency.
Chinese authorities have approved the American anti-virus drug Remdesivir for clinical trials with the new coronavirus, Xinhua reported. The first group of patients should take the drug on Thursday. It has shown good results with other corona viruses such as Sars or Mers and at least at the cell level with the new virus called 2019-nCov. 761 patients take the tests.
WHO to virus
