Caution is advised. If official figures confirm a certain decline, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the spread of the coronavirus remains " impossible to predict ". Le Figaro takes stock of the viral pneumonia epidemic this Tuesday, February 17.
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- 105 dead in one day
The total number of deaths due to the epidemic of coronavirus baptized Covid-19 amounts to 1775, including 1770 in mainland China, mostly in the province of Hubei, in the center of the country, according to official figures published Monday evening . This figure confirms a slowdown in the daily number of new deaths (105 Monday against 142 Sunday and 143 Saturday).
The total number of cases reached 71,335, including 70,552 in mainland China. Again, we are witnessing a decline, according to official figures. The number of new cases outside of Hubei was only 115 on Monday, compared to nearly 450 a week earlier.
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- WHO experts in China
International experts dispatched to Beijing by WHO have started talking with their Chinese counterparts. " We look forward to this important and vital collaboration contributing to global knowledge of the # COVID19 epidemic ," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Sunday evening.
A senior Chinese official estimated that his country was in the process of controlling the epidemic: " We can already see the effect of measures to control and prevent the epidemic in different parts of the country ", welcomed the door - Word from the Chinese Ministry of Health, Mi Feng.
- Even more controls
At the center of the crisis, Hubei province, where 56 million people have been cut off from the world since January 23, has further restricted the freedom of movement of its citizens far beyond its capital Wuhan.
Villages and residential cities are now subject to " strict closed management " 24 hours a day, which means that residents are no longer expected to leave their homes until further notice. Purchases and distribution of food and medicine can be done " centrally, " said a provincial directive released Sunday.
- Thirty countries concerned
Outside mainland China, nearly 600 cases of contamination by the coronavirus epidemic have been confirmed in thirty countries around the world. Visiting Pakistan, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was confident that " the gigantic effort " made by China "will allow the progressive decline of the disease ".
But the head of the WHO for his part warned that it was " impossible to predict which direction the epidemic will take ". " We ask all governments, all societies and all news organizations to work with us to raise the appropriate level of alarm without blowing the embers of hysteria, " he said at the conference. Munich on Security.
- First death outside Asia and first case in Africa
A first death outside Asia - an 80-year-old Chinese tourist hospitalized in France - and a first case on the African continent - in Egypt - have been recorded in recent days. Taiwan also announced its first death on Sunday, a 61-year-old taxi driver. The main source of infection outside of China remains the cruise ship Diamond Princess , in quarantine in Japan: 355 cases of contamination have been confirmed there, including 70 new cases announced on Sunday.
Several countries - Canada, the United States, but also Hong Kong, nearly a thousand passengers between them - have decided to quickly evacuate their nationals, stranded in the boat in quarantine since February 3. But the 3,711 people initially on board have not yet all undergone the examinations making it possible to establish their possible contamination. The quarantined Americans were evacuated from the boat at dawn Monday. Some of them will be transported to a military base in California and others in Texas.
- Concern in Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, a territory that has barricaded itself to protect itself from the epidemic for ten days, consumers are robbing supermarkets to store food and cleaning products for fear of shortages, even if the authorities say that the chain of supply continues to operate normally.
Hong Kong police said on Monday that a truck driver was robbed in front of a supermarket in Mong Kok district by three individuals armed with knives who stole a large stock of toilet paper rolls, a product that has become difficult to find in shops. rays.
- 14 positive cases among Americans evacuated from ocean liner in Japan
Fourteen people who tested positive for the new coronavirus were among some 300 American passengers and their families evacuated by plane from the stranded cruise liner in Japan, the State Department announced on Monday. These people were isolated from other passengers on the plane that was evacuating them, the State Department said in a statement.
