Chinese premier Li Keqiang visits Wuhan as death toll hits 80

TIL Desk/World/Wuhan/ Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited coronavirus-hit Wuhan city on Monday, the first such trip by a top leader as the death toll climbed to 80 with 2,744 confirmed cases. Li arrived in Wuhan to inspect the epidemic control and prevention work. He heads the high-powered group of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) officials empowered to deal with the rapidly spreading virus on war footing.

Ahead of his visit, Chinese health authorities announced the death toll due to coronavirus has sharply increased to 80 with 2,744 confirmed cases. The confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus officially described as 2019-nCoV included 461 patients who are in critical condition. Sunday saw 769 new confirmed cases, 3,806 new suspected cases and 24 deaths, all in Hubei province of which Wuhan is the provincial capital, the National Health Commission (NHC) said.

The NHC on Sunday said the new coronavirus is contagious even in its incubation period, which lasts up to 14 days, and that the virus’ ability to spread is getting stronger. By the end of Sunday, the pneumonia situation resulted in 80 deaths. As many as 51 people have recovered while there were currently 5,794 suspected cases, it said.