Viruses

The death toll of the coronavirus in China has reached 1,765 people after another 100 deaths were reported in Hubei, according to official figures published today.

In total, at least 70,400 people were infected in China.

The number of new coronavirus cases in China fell on Feb. 16 and a health official said intense efforts to stop its spread were beginning to work, as another 70 people tested positive on a virus-stricken cruise ship quarantined in Japan.

An 80-year-old Chinese tourist has died from the new coronavirus in France, which is the first confirmed death from the disease outside Asia, according to the country's health ministry.

The Chinese tourist is from Hubei Province. She arrived in France on January 16 and was quarantined at a hospital on January 25.

More than 2,600 new cases were confirmed from a coronavirus outbreak in mainland China, health officials said on Feb. 15, a day after people returning to the capital from holidays were ordered to quarantine themselves for 14 days.   

The death toll in China from the coronavirus outbreak has risen to 1,381, the country's National Health Commission said on Feb. 14.

Authorities said 63,851 confirmed cases have been reported, while in the last 24 hours, 121 people have died and more than 5,090 new cases have been detected.

All 42 people quarantined in Turkey after evacuation from Wuhan, China, were discharged from hospital on Feb. 14.

Turkey's health minister said none of the individuals -- 32 Turkish nationals, six Azerbaijanis, three Georgians, and one Albanian -- showed any signs of Covid-19, the disease caused by the deadly coronavirus.

First death due to the coronavirus in Japan. According to Katsunobu Kato, the country's health, labor and social security minister, an 80-year-old woman in Kanagawa Prefecture has died from the virus, RIA Novosti reports.

The number of the coronavirus infected foreign nationals in China remains 27, but 8 have already been cured, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said.

The Foreign Office refrained from commenting on the citizenship of the infected, in order to respect the rights and interests of patients, RIA Novosti reported.

Air China will cancel flights to Athens, Greece, from Feb. 17 to March 18 as a precaution to stem the coronavirus outbreak, an Air China company official in Greece said on Wednesday.

"The reason is public safety because of the coronavirus and there are operational reasons as well," an officer at the airline's Athens office said.

Winter break will be extended by seven days, and it will last until February 24, throughout Serbia.
A recommendation from the Ministry of Health on extending vacation was given to reduce the spread of the flu virus, as a flu epidemic was reported in Belgrade.