Beijing: China has reported 22 new deaths from the deadly coronavirus, the lowest number of fatalities in more than a month, taking the death toll to 3,119, while the new confirmed cases hit a record low to 40, prompting authorities to close 11 temporary hospitals at the virus epicentre in Wuhan.
According to China’s National Health Commission, (NHC) the overall confirmed cases on the mainland reached 80,735 by the end of Sunday which included 3,119 people who have died so far, 19,016 patients undergoing treatment and 58,600 patients discharged after recovery.
“Among the deaths on Sunday, 21 were in Hubei Province and one in Guangdong Province.Meanwhile, 60 new suspected cases were reported taking the total to 421 people,” it said.
Also on Sunday, four imported cases of novel coronavirus infection from abroad were reported on the mainland, all of which were in Gansu Province. By the end of Sunday, 67 imported cases had been reported, the NHC said.
By the end of Sunday, 114 confirmed cases, including three deaths have been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 10 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 45 in Taiwan including one death.
Meanwhile, China has begun dismantling a host of temporary hospitals built-in big public places like auditoriums and sports complexes in Wuhan set up during the massive surge of virus cases in January and February.China has built two makeshift hospitals with 2,300 beds capacity in just about 10 days’ time in early February and later started converting public buildings into hospitals to meet the rush of patients.
“Two makeshift hospitals were suspended on Sunday in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province and the heart of the novel corona virus outbreak, as the number of patients continued to drop,” local officials said.The city has suspended the operation of 11 makeshift hospitals, which were converted from public facilities for the treatment of patients with mild symptoms in the city, the report said.
A total of 105,586 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 have been reported worldwide as of Sunday, an increase of 3,656 infections from the previous day, including 3,610 new cases outside China.