Officials in China said Sunday that the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak has now risen to 80. China’s National Health Commission also said thousands of people being monitored for possible exposure. Most of the deaths have occurred in and around the city of Wuhan, where the outbreak first emerged earlier this month.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Saturday her government is raising its response level to the highest level – emergency – and closing schools for two weeks, as authorities rush to contain the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
Wuhan has been locked down for days, with public transportation halted and flights and trains out of the city suspended. More than a dozen cities across China have been locked down, affecting more than 50 million people, The Associated Press reports.
Despite efforts to prevent the outbreak from spreading, cases have cropped up overseas. Five cases of illness have been confirmed in the U.S. as of Sunday, all in people who recently traveled to the Wuhan area. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that 63 people in 22 states were being monitored for possible infection.
Authorities believe the virus, which causes flu-like symptoms, moved into the human population from an infected animal at a market in Wuhan. Chinese health officials and the World Health Organization confirmed this week that the virus has been transmitted person-to-person, but it remains unclear how easy it is to contract from another infected individual.
