The coronavirus death toll in China has risen to 811, surpassing the toll from the SARS epidemic of 2002-3.
According to China’s National Health Commission, the number of confirmed infections rose to 37,198.
Eighty-nine deaths and 2,656 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, most of them in Hubei Province, the heart of the outbreak.
The SARS epidemic, which also began in China, killed 774 people worldwide.
There have been only two confirmed deaths from the new coronavirus outside mainland China: one in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines.
Many doctors believe that deaths and infections from the current epidemic are undercounted in China.
[Source: New York Times]
