Coronavirus: China death toll climbs to 106 with first fatality in Beijing – live updates | Science

China’s National Health Commission issued guidance on treating the coronavirus last night (27 January).

It says “respiratory droplet transmission is the main route of transmission”, but it can also be transmitted through contact.

It says “based on current epidemiological investigations, the incubation period is generally 3-7 days, with the longest no more than 14 days”.

As I mentioned earlier, the US consulate in Wuhan is preparing to fly its diplomats and some other Americans out of the country. Many other countries are also considering this, such as Japan, Mongolia, and France. Australia has identified about 400 citizens how have registered for help to get out of Hubei, but it does not have an embassy in Wuhan, which is likely making the situation more complicated. Indian diplomatic officials are also apparently in talks about how to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan.

In Australia, there’s been conflicting advice between public and private schools about when to send children back for the start of the school year after the long summer break.

Australia’s federal education minister, Dan Tehan, weighed into the debate today, chastising schools for forcing healthy students returning from China to stay away.

Some private schools are telling children to stay away from school for 14 days if they have recently travelled to any part of China. Publicly funded state schools say only students who have been in contact with known cases of coronavirus should be excluded until medically cleared.

“Individual schools make their own decisions but the advice from the Australian government is to follow our medical advice,” Tehan told ABC radio.

“I would say to all schools that they should be following the advice of the health department, that is the clear position of the Australian government.

“Obviously in the end they will have to answer to their parents, but also they will have to answer to state and territory governments, who have responsibility for schools.”

We have reported quite a bit about the new hospital Chinese authorities are building in a very short time to cope withe rising number of infections. Below is a time-lapse video of the 1,000-bed facility that is expected to open in the next few days.

Just to put those figures into context … yesterday the toll was 82, so today’s figures of 106 is an increase of 29%. Infections are up from 2,887 to 4,193, an increase of 45%. But it’s worth remembering these are still relatively small numbers of people affected relative to the population size. Wuhan – where most deaths have occurred – has a population of 11 million people

Chinese state media is reporting the new figures for deaths and those infected by the coronavirus.

The People’s Daily says:

• 106 deaths
• 4,193 cases confirmed in China

We are starting to get some revised figures on infections in China from coronavirus.

The official broadcaster CGTN has just tweeted that there are now 100 deaths confirmed in Hubei province, where the city of Wuhan is the epicentre. It says there are 2,714 confirmed cases in the province, which has a population of just under 60 million people.

The Global Times has also reported that Beijing has suspended 28 bus routes to neighbouring cities in an attempt to control the spread of the virus.

China’s official Global Times is reporting 13 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Shanghai on Monday, taking the total in the city to 66. I’ll bring you an update on overall figures as soon as I can confirm it.

As I mentioned earlier, the US has upgraded its travel advice to China to level 3 – its highest level _ which advises Americans to avoid all non-essential travel to China.

Meanwhile the Associated Press is reporting that US State Department has ordered it employees in Wuhan to leave the city and is offering seats on a charter flight to US citizens who also want to leave. Here’s the AP report:

State department officials said on Monday in a statement that the the flight to Ontario, California, is expected to leave Wuhan on Wednesday morning local time. Priority will be given to citizens who are most at risk of contracting the virus.

Alaska health officials say the flight is expected to make a refuelling stop in Anchorage and that about 240 Americans are expected to be aboard.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services says the passengers will be screened for coronavirus before they leave Wuhan by US and Chinese health officials and that anyone with symptoms will not be allowed to board the aircraft. The department in a statement says they would be screened again at Anchorage.