Coronavirus LIVE Updates: President Xi says China can 'win the battle' against epidemic

The capital city of China, Beijing will suspend domestic and overseas Chinese group tours from Jan. 27, state media reported. 

The deadly Coronavirus continues to wreak havoc in China and abroad as the death toll due to it in this Far East country rose to 41 with 1287 confirmed cases, China's National Health Commission announced on Saturday. Of the 1,287 confirmed cases as of Friday night, the condition of the 237 is stated to be critical, the Commission announced.

The pneumonia situation had resulted in 41 deaths, including 39 in central China's Hubei province and one in northeastern province Heilongjiang, it said. Additionally, a total of 1,965 suspected cases have also been reported, it said.

The virus has spread to Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Nepal, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States as of Thursday. Japan on Friday reported a second confirmed case.

13 cities shutdown due to Coronavirus

It has triggered a cause of concern for India too as many of the 700 odd Indian students studying in universities of Wuhan and Hubei provinces are still stuck up there. The Indian Embassy has established hotlines to keep close contact with them.

Battling the fast-spreading Coronavirus, China has begun building a 1,000-bed hospital in Wuhan which is expected to be completed in less than ten days. It also began deploying military medics to step up the treatment facilities in Wuhan and 12

In view of the virus scare, several cities, including Beijing, have cancelled special events marking China's Lunar New Year. The festival is also known as the Spring Festival. Large cultural activities during the spring festival in Beijing such as temple fairs were cancelled to prevent the spread of the virus. 

China's biggest city Shanghai raised the emergency response to public health safety to level 1, the highest, following Beijing, and Hubei, Hunan, Zhejiang, Anhui and Guangdong provinces as more cases were reported. Beijing so far has reported 34 confirmed cases of Coronavirus infection, official media reported. The Chinese disease prevention authority on Friday released pictures and information of the first Wuhan Coronavirus that Chinese experts had discovered.

What is Coronavirus?

While scientists are yet to ascertain the origins of the disease, the CoV is transmittable from human to human as well as animals and humans, creating a possibility of it going pandemic. CoV causes illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). WHO has sent directives to hospitals around the world on infection prevention and control, but are yet to declare a public health emergency.

(With PTI Inputs)

Australia on Saturday confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus that has claimed 41 lives in China, becoming the latest country in a growing list to be affected by the illness.

Hong Kong on January 25 declared the virus as an 'emergency' and further upgraded the Hong Kong Disease contingency plan form 'serious' to 'emergency' level. While addressing a press conference, Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced that the schools in the city have been suspended until February 17. 

China has expanded its travel ban to a total of 13 cities stepping up in its efforts to curb the deadly coronavirus. As of Saturday, Chinese officials have placed a ban on 13 cities, out of which 12 are in Hubei Province. The ban has affected nearly 56 million people.

Malaysia has reported its first three cases of deadly coronavirus on January 25. Dzulkefly Ahmad, Health Minister of Malaysia has said that the three individuals infected were Chinese nationals.

Authorities in China have decided to restrict car traffic in the city of Wuhan from Sunday in a bid to stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus in the city.