China: Death toll rises to 56 as coronavirus continue to wreak havoc

The death toll in China's Hubei region, the epicentre of the deadly coronavirus, has risen to 56 and the number of people infected by the disease is close to 2,000, authorities confirmed to the international press on Sunday. Out of the 56 people that died, 52 were from Hubei, the province where the outbreak took place, two deaths took place in central Henan province, while one person died in Heilongjiang and Hebei respectively. 

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The virus that had taken its roots in China is now gradually spreading across the globe. According to international media reports, the virus has spread to Hong Kong, Bangkok, Tokyo, South Korea, Beijing, Shanghai, Vietnam, Taiwan, France, the US, and Singapore. While the disease is mainly concentrated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, there have been five reported cases in Thailand and three in Japan and France respectively.

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Preventive measures

China reported its first medical professional casualty from the highly contagious coronavirus on Saturday. The medical professional fell victim to the deadly disease in the Hubei province of China. According to reports, authorities have deployed military medics to set up the treatment in the region and 13 cities in the country are under complete lockdown. The Chinese government has banned all public transport in Hubei, where 12 out of the 13 locked down cities are located. 

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Chinese state media had earlier reported that the authorities will build two hospitals in the Wuhan region with a capacity of an estimated 1,500 beds to treat the patients infected by the deadly disease. The construction of the first hospital has already started with 35 diggers and 10 bulldozers reaching the site of the construction on Thursday night. The hospital that will be erected on a 25,000-square-metre lot is supposed to be completed in a record time of 10 days, state municipal board confirmed. China has previously taken similar measures when it was hit by SARS in 2003. 

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