The death toll on mainland China from the coronavirus outbreak reached 811 by late Saturday, surpassing the number of deaths caused by the SARS pandemic of 2002-03, Chinese officials said early Sunday.
Eighty-nine people died of the illness on Saturday, China's National Health Commission said Sunday morning.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is believed to have killed more than 774 people and sickened nearly 8,100 in China and the special administrative region of Hong Kong.
The commission reported that new infection cases dropped Saturday for the first time since February 1, to 2,656, for a total of 37,198.
Joseph Eisenberg, professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, told Reuters news agency it was too early to say whether the epidemic was peaking because of the uncertainty in the number of cases.
"Even if reported cases might be peaking, we don't know what is happening with unreported cases," he told Reuters. "This is especially an issue in some of the more rural areas."
Among the new fatalities were a U.S. citizen in Wuhan, China — the epicenter of the outbreak — officials at the American Embassy in Beijing said Saturday. The embassy said that the 60-year-old American died February 6.
A Japanese citizen was also reported to have died in Wuhan of viral pneumonia, likely caused by the coronavirus, although that had not been confirmed.
WHO team
World Health Organization Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Saturday that the organization would send an international team of investigators to China on Monday or Tuesday. Tedros did not name the team members, saying the organization would “publicize everything as soon as we’re ready.”
The WHO said Friday that it was too early to confirm one Chinese official's belief that the outbreak was about to peak.
But WHO public health specialist Mike Ryan said Saturday that the number of new cases in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, had stabilized over the last four days, “which may reflect the impact of control measures put in place.”
Hong Kong began enforcing Saturday a 14-day quarantine for arrivals from mainland China after more than 2,000 medical workers walked off the job earlier this week.
On Saturday, Japan confirmed three new infectious cases aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, moored off Japan, raising the total to 64. The 3,700 passengers, who are confined aboard the ship, face a 14-day quarantine. Fourteen days is the virus' incubation period.
Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said passengers aboard Holland America's Westerdam wouldn't be allowed into the country because officials believed some were sick with the virus. The ship, with more than 2,000 people aboard and sailing near Okinawa, was seeking another port.
On Friday, the United States said it was offering up to $100 million to China and other countries affected by the coronavirus to combat its spread.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in making the announcement, said, "This commitment — along with the hundreds of millions generously donated by the American private sector — demonstrates strong U.S. leadership in response to the outbreak.”
Trump praises Xi
Earlier Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s efforts to combat the coronavirus as Xi faced mounting domestic criticism following the virus-related death of a physician who issued an early warning about the outbreak.
After a Friday telephone conversation with Xi, Trump praised China’s response and said Xi was leading "what will be a very successful operation.” Trump continued to applaud Xi on Twitter Friday, describing him as "strong, sharp and powerfully focused.”
The death of the Chinese doctor who was censored by Communist Party authorities after warning of the new, then-unidentified virus in December has triggered an outpouring of anger online at party authorities for its tight control on information about the crisis.
Police had accused Dr. Li Wenliang, who died Friday morning local time at Wuhan Central Hospital, of "spreading rumors online” and "severely disrupting social order.”
However, Li was widely praised by many, including by China Center for Disease Control chief scientist Zeng Guang.
'Immortal'
"A hero who released information about Wuhan’s epidemic in the early stage, Dr. Li Wenliang is immortal,” Zeng wrote on the Sina Weibo microblog page.
The ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily wrote on Twitter, "We deeply mourn the death of Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang. ... After all-effort rescue, Li passed away.”
In response to the uproar in China over the government’s treatment of Li, the Communist Party announced Friday that it would send a team to Wuhan to "fully investigate relevant issues raised by the public.”
There were more than 320 confirmed cases in at least 25 other countries, including one death in the Philippines — the first outside China -- and one death in Hong Kong.
Coronavirus Death Toll Surpasses That of SARS Epidemic
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