Racing bar chart shows how novel coronavirus spreads outside China. (Data source: WHO)
Coronavirus watch March 8:
--Coronavirus cases outside China hit 20,000
--Confirmed cases in Italy exceeds 5,000
--New York declares state of emergency as confirmed cases rise
--1st death in South America
GENEVA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- A total of 21,114 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported by 93 countries and regions outside China as of 10:00 CET Saturday, an increase of 3,633 infections from the previous day, according to the daily situation report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) Saturday evening.
The number of confirmed cases worldwide has risen by 3,735 to 101,927 on Saturday, according to the report. Outside China, 78 more people died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, bringing the total deaths to 413.
A woman wearing a face mask walks on a street amid the novel coronavirus outbreak in Tehran, Iran, on March 2, 2020. (Photo by Ahmad Halabisaz/Xinhua)
WHO has revised the transmission classification of Iceland, Palestine and Cameroon from "imported cases only" to "local transmission", bringing the total number of countries and regions where local transmission emerged to 45 in addition to China.
Italian Army soldiers check transit to and from the cordoned areas in Turano Lodigiano, Italy, Feb. 27, 2020. (Xinhua)
ROME -- Italy's current confirmed cases of coronavirus reached 5,061 on Saturday, excluding 233 deaths and 589 recoveries, according to the Civil Protection Department.
"It shows an increase of 1,145 infections (over the previous day)," Civil Protection Department chief Angelo Borrelli, who serves as extraordinary commissioner for the coronavirus emergency, told a televised press conference at 6 p.m. local time.
"It must be specified this is partially due to the situation in Lombardy (region), where over 300 people had been tested positive at the laboratory in Brescia in the previous days, and were yet to be registered," he added.
Latest data showed that a total of 589 people have recovered, an increase of 66 from Friday. There were also 36 new fatalities, bringing the death toll to 233.
Tourists wear masks in Rome on March 5. (Photo by Alberto Lingria/Xinhua)
Adding death toll and recoveries, the country's accumulated cases since the new coronavirus outbreak was 5,883.
As for the health conditions of the 5,061 who tested positive, the commissioner said 2,651 were currently hospitalized, another 567 were in intensive care, and 1,843 who were asymptomatic or with light symptoms were in isolation at home.
The commissioner also said places in intensive care units in northern Lombardy region -- the most hit by the epidemic so far -- were getting scarce, and thus some patients with COVID-19 might soon be moved from there to other regions where beds in the same units were available.
A passenger wearing facial mask waits to buy ticket at Grand Central Station in New York, the United States, Feb. 29, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)
NEW YORK -- Governor of the U.S. state of New York declared a state of emergency on Saturday as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the northeastern state rose to 76.
At a press conference, Governor Andrew Cuomo said that New York City, the most populous metropolis in the country, has seen 11 cases, and Westchester County now has 57, an increase of 23 overnight.
Long Island's Nassau County has four, Rockland County has two and Saratoga County has two new cases.
All cases in Westchester County are related to the state's second confirmed case, which involves an attorney who worked in Manhattan.
"Westchester is an obvious problem for us," the governor said. "They talk about the contagion in clusters and the clusters tend to infect more and more people."
People wear masks in Bogota, Colombia, on March 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Jhon Paz)
BUENOS AIRES -- A 64-year-old man died in Argentina on Saturday after being diagnosed with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the first death from the disease in Latin America, the Argentinean Ministry of Health reported.■
