Report: 99% Of New COVID-19 Cases Are Appearing Outside Of China
Malaysia's number of confirmed cases has also totalled to 117 as of today, 10 March.
By May Vin Ang — 10 Mar 2020, 02:27 PM
The spread of the novel coronavirus within China, the epicentre of the outbreak, has slowed down sharply in the past week as the numbers worldwide continue to climb
In a turn of events, Reuters reported that 99% of new COVID-19 cases worldwide are now outside of China.
According to The New York Times, the coronavirus outbreak has sickened more than 100,000 people in at least 102 countries, as of yesterday, 9 March.
While most of that number came from China with 80,754 confirmed cases since December, most of the new cases reported in the last week have come from South Korea, Japan, Iran, the United States, and several countries in Europe, including hard-hit Italy.
Italy's prime minister has ordered a lockdown across the country as cases increased to over 9,000, up from 5,883 since Saturday, 7 March, with more than 460 people dead.
The next worst-hit country is Iran, which has reported 43 new deaths due to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. At least 237 people have died and 7,161 have been infected across the country.
Germany and Spain also saw new spikes in the number of cases yesterday, with confirmed number of patients just passing 1,000 in each country.
Meanwhile, mainland China has reported no new locally transmitted coronavirus cases outside of Hubei province, for the third straight day
According to Reuters, the country's National Health Commission reported that there were only 19 new cases of coronavirus infections on Monday, the lowest number of new cases reported in weeks.
Furthermore, since the outbreak, 59,897 patients have been discharged from hospitals, with 12 of the 14 temporary hospitals in Wuhan dedicated to treating coronavirus patients having closed.
The remaining two are due to shut today, 10 March.
A makeshift hospital in Wuhan empty of patients, waiting to be fully disinfected before closing.
Image via Xinhua/Global TimesWith the rest of the world, the number of infected cases in Malaysia also continues to rise
The Star reported that there are 18 new coronavirus cases as of Monday, 9 March, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 117.
Among Malaysia's second wave of cases that began in late February, only six cases had history of travel, while the vast majority were infected locally as close contacts of previous cases, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
One of the six who had travel history had gone to Iran from 20 to 27 February. He was confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 on March 8, said Dr Noor Hisham in a statement.
He added that out of the 117 total patients, two patients require respiratory aid and are being treated in the intensive care unit.
