Epidemic continues to ease in China, number of new coronavirus cases fall

At least seven more people died of the disease on the mainland until early on Friday, taking the death toll to 3,176; the number of total infections stood at 80,813.

China on Friday reported continued easing of the coronavirus epidemic in the country with eight new cases reported in the past 24 hours, the second consecutive day of single-digit increase in covid-19 infections.

Health workers wear protective suits as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus as they unpack safety equipment outside the New China International Exhibition Centre, near Beijing Capital Airport in Beijing on March 13, 2020. (AFP photo)

At least seven more people died of the disease on the mainland until early on Friday, taking the death toll to 3,176; the number of total infections stood at 80,813.

The worst-hit central Chinese province of Hubei reported five of the eight new cases – the remaining three were reported in people who travelled back to China – and six of the deaths.

The falling numbers come in the backdrop of health officials declaring on Thursday that the peak of the epidemic had passed in China, meaning new cases would continue to fall.

“As of Thursday, a total of 21 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps had seen no new indigenous cases for more than 14 days, while six provincial-level regions had reported no new indigenous cases for more than a week,” Mi Feng, spokesperson of the national health commission (NHC), said.

More than 64000 have recovered from the infection until.

Thousands, however, are still undergoing treatment in Hubei.

More than 11800 are in hospitals, majority in the capital and outbreak ground zero, Wuhan, said Tu Yuanchao, deputy director of Hubei provincial health commission, on Friday.

Among them, 697 of them were critically and 3251 severely ill, Tu said.

Meanwhile, preliminary study, which is yet to be peer-reviewed and published in the medRxiv journal, says the virus can last in aerosols up to three hours and survive on the surfaces of plastic and stainless steel up to two to three days.

The research also claims the virus is capable of surviving on copper surfaces for four hours and paper material up to 24 hours.

“How long the COVID-19 virus can survive on the surfaces of various objects ‘depends on the type of surface, temperature or humidity of the environment,” Yang Zhanqiu, a Wuhan-based virologist, told the Global Times on Friday.