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China virus death toll rises to 6 as city at epicentre steps up controls
- Quarantine the most effective way to stop further spread of coronavirus, Sars expert says
- Wuhan, the heart of the outbreak, ramps up checks on travellers to and from the city
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The death toll from a previously unknown virus that has sickened more than 300 people across China has risen to six, as the central city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, stepped up controls to contain its spread.
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Chinese officials reported on Tuesday that the total number of confirmed cases had jumped to 309, the bulk of them in Hubei province. Others were reported in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Henan and Chongqing.
Cases have also been confirmed in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Thailand, while Hong Kong reported 118 suspected cases, including 88 people who have been discharged.
On Tuesday, Zhong Nanshan, one of China’s leading specialists on communicable diseases, stressed that quarantine was the most effective method to prevent further spread, since the virus could be spread between people.
“Human-to-human transmission [of the virus] was proved in Guangzhou. In Wuhan, medical workers and patients infected each other by being in the same room, and in the Guangzhou case, the patients were infected by two relatives who visited Wuhan,” Zhong said in Guangzhou.
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