Death toll in China COVID-19 epidemic surges past 1,500

BEIJING - The death toll from China's new coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic surged past 1,500 on Saturday after 139 more people died in Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak.

The province's health commission also reported 2,420 new cases of the COVID-19 strain, about half the number from the previous day.

At least 1,519 people have now died from the outbreak that first emerged in Hubei's capital, Wuhan, in December and snowballed into a nationwide epidemic a month later.

More than 66,000 people have now been infected, with most deaths occurring in Hubei.

The scale of the epidemic swelled this week after authorities in Hubei changed their criteria for counting cases, adding thousands of new patients to their tally.

Cases "clinically diagnosed" through lung imaging are now counted in addition to those that have shown up positive in laboratory tests.

The revision added nearly 15,000 patients to Hubei's tally on Thursday, with the World Health Organization noting that cases going back weeks were retroactively counted. There were over 4,800 cases reported in Hubei on Friday.

Authorities said 1,716 medical workers have been infected during the outbreak, with six dying from the illness.

Most of the infections among health workers were in Hubei's capital, Wuhan, where many have lacked proper masks and gear to protect themselves in hospitals dealing with a deluge of patients.

The grim figures come a week after grief and public anger erupted over the death of a whistleblowing doctor who had been reprimanded and silenced by police in Wuhan after raising the alarm about the virus in December.

Philippines

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the Department of Health on Friday said out of the cumulative total of 455 people under investigation (PUIs) in the country, 386 or over 84% tested negative for the virus.

On the other hand, three confirmed cases of COVID-19 were earlier reported, two of whom have recovered and one died.

Health Assistant Secretary Maria Vergeire said only 66 PUIs are awaiting the results of laboratory tests to determine whether they carry the virus or not.

Of the 455 recorded PUIs, 191 are still admitted at hospitals, 260 were discharged (including two confirmed cases), three died while under investigation, and another died after testing positive for COVID-19.

The Philippines lifted the ban on travel to and from Taiwan in connection with efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Malacañang said on Friday.

The travel ban on mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau however is still in effect.

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases will evaluate if the travel ban on the other areas can be lifted after submission of the protocols meant to "prevent potential carriers of the virus from entering and deporting their territory." —Agence France-Presse/KG, GMA News