BEIJING (AFP): China's death toll from a new coronavirus jumped above 360 on Monday (Feb 3) to surpass the number of fatalities of its Sars crisis two decades ago, with dozens of people dying in the epicentre's quarantined ground-zero. The World Health Organization has declared the crisis a global health emergency, and the first foreign death from the virus was reported in the Philippines on Sunday. The national death toll reached 361, exceeding the 349 mainland fatalities from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) outbreak of 2002-03. However, with the death toll surging in Wuhan and elsewhere in Hubei province, it was not immediately clear what overall impact the hospitals would have on the virus spreading elsewhere. But some major cities -- including Shanghai -- extended the holiday again, and many schools and universities delayed the start of new terms.

Source: thestar February 03, 2020 07:07 UTC