Coronavirus update: Xi Jinping visits Wuhan as China numbers fall, Italy’s soar
- Italian leader puts entire country in lockdown as cases rise to 9,172
- Wuhan continues to be only site of new domestic cases on Chinese mainland
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Wuhan – epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak – on Tuesday morning, as the number of new infections in mainland China continued its downward trend on Monday, with just 19 cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Italy is in lockdown, after a climb in the number of infections there to 9,172, overtaking South Korea as the worst affected country outside China. South Korea reported 7,513 infections as of midnight on Tuesday, while Iran has confirmed more than 7,000 cases.
“Now that the virus has a foothold in so many countries, the threat of a pandemic has become very real,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.
Stock markets in Hong Kong and Shanghai bounced back in early trading on Tuesday, after stocks fell more than 7 per cent in the US, the Dow’s single-day biggest point drop ever.
Man rescued from coronavirus hotel ruins
A man was pulled alive from the rubble of the Xinjia Express Hotel in Quanzhou in eastern China on Tuesday, three days after the building collapsed, according to state media.
Xinhua reported that the man was rescued and sent to hospital just after 4.30pm.