Coronavirus: South Korea records almost 300 new infections as Hong Kong confirms first child case
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China’s National Health Commission said there were also 52 new deaths, all of them in Hubei, the central Chinese province at the heart of the outbreak. This compared with 508 new cases – a fall of 102 – and 71 deaths a day earlier.
There were only five new infections outside Hubei. So far, 29,745 patients on mainland China have recovered from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
South Korea cases exceed 1,100
South Korea reported 284 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of infections there to 1,261.
Many of the confirmed cases came from two clusters of infections – linked to a religious sect in the southeastern city of Daegu and a hospital in the neighbouring county of Cheongdo, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
Of the 169 new cases reported in the morning, 153 are in Daegu, 300km southeast of Seoul, and neighbouring North Gyeongsang province, but nearly all major provinces and cities have reported some infections, including four cases in the capital Seoul, according to the Korea Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). A further 115 cases were reported in the afternoon.
Busan, South Korea's second-largest city, reported eight new cases and Gyeonggi province reported one new case on Wednesday morning, the KCDC said. So far, 11 people have died in South Korea from the virus, including a 36-year-old Mongolian national who was hospitalised for a liver transplant.
