Wuhan closes makeshift hospital as new coronavirus cases in China drop
shaheennews
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (REUTERS) – The Chinese city at the centre of the coronavirus epidemic closed its first makeshift hospital, one of 16 hurriedly built to handle the epidemic, after it discharged the last recovered patients, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Monday (March 2).
News of the closure coincided with a sharp decline in new cases in Hubei province and the provincial capital Wuhan, but the country remained on alert as Chinese nationals returning home are testing positive for the virus.
China’s central Hubei province, the epicentre of the country’s coronavirus outbreak, reported fewer than 200 cases of new infections for the first time since January.
Hubei had 196 new confirmed cases on Sunday, the National Health Commission said on Monday, sharply down from 570 cases a day earlier and the lowest since Jan 24.
The decline was driven by a fall in new cases in Wuhan, where the virus first appeared last December, which reported 193 new infections, the lowest since Jan 26.
Mainland China had a total of 202 new confirmed cases, the lowest since Jan 22. Excluding new infections in Hubei, there were only six new cases in mainland China, the lowest since last month. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in mainland China so far to 80,026.
The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China reached 2,912 as of the end of Sunday, up by 42 from the previous day.
