CORONAVIRUS: China’s death toll surpasses 2,236, officials confirm 1,109 new cases

China’s National Health Commission has informed that the death toll arising for the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus which has quickly spread across the world has reached 2,236 with officials confirming 1,109 new cases.

Mainland China had 118 new deaths from the coronavirus outbreak by the end of Thursday, with Beijing also reporting 1,109 new confirmed cases of the disease during the same period.

Earlier, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing in Geneva that the recent decline in the number of new cases is encouraging, but added that it was too early to know if this trend will continue.

“We are encouraged by this trend but this is no time for complacency,” he said.

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The development comes a day after three Wall Street Journal reporters were expelled by authorities in China for publishing an opinion piece with the headline, ‘China is the Real Sick Man of Asia,’ which criticised the government over its handling of the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus.

“The Chinese people do not welcome media that publish racist statements and smear China with malicious attacks,” Geng Shuang, the foreign ministry spokesman, said at a press conference late on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the publication of racism for publishing an opinion piece on the outbreak of the coronavirus which has so far killed more than 2,000 people and infected close to 75,000 others.

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