Chinese health authorities yesterday reported dozens of new deaths from a coronavirus outbreak, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) released a report by a team of experts that confirmed the virus' animal origin and praised China's handling of the outbreak.
Calling it "perhaps the most ambitious, agile and aggressive disease containment effort in history", the team of 25 Chinese and international experts said China's bold moves to stem the spread tamed infections from thousands of new cases a day two weeks ago, to several hundred now.
"Covid-19 is a zoonotic virus," the report said, using the official name of the virus, noting that while bats have been a reservoir, the immediate host, from which the virus jumped to a human, has still not been identified.
Data from the National Health Commission showed there were 427 new cases of the disease on Friday, taking the total number of infections to 79,251. The national death toll stands at 2,835, with 47 more people dying on Friday.
One person died in Beijing and another in Henan province, while 45 died in Hubei.
New economic data confirmed the massive blow the virus outbreak has dealt to the world's second-largest economy.
Beijing has been attempting to get people back to work, restarting factories and mines, but has to strike a fine balance between economic concerns and lifting the strict control measures in place to contain Covid-19.
The 40-page report, elements of which had been discussed at a press conference in Beijing on Monday with joint team leaders Bruce Aylward and Liang Wannian, lauded the country's efforts in containing the virus through shutdowns and rigorous contact tracing.
The team visited Beijing, Chengdu, Shenzhen and the epicentre, Wuhan, between Feb 16 and 24 in a bid to better understand the virus' origins, its spread and the Chinese response.
The report said China's stringent measures have bought the world time to prepare to deal with the outbreak.
"China has rolled out perhaps the most ambitious, agile and aggressive disease containment effort in history," said the report, citing the lockdowns that were enforced in many cities, and the speed at which scientists worked to decode the virus.
"The implementation of these containment measures has been supported and enabled by the innovative and aggressive use of cutting-edge technologies, from shifting to online medical platforms for routine care and schooling, to the use of 5G platforms to support rural response operations."
Also crucial in containing the spread was the people's "collective action", the report said.
"A particularly compelling statistic is that on the first day of the advance team's work, there were 2,478 newly confirmed cases of Covid-19 reported in China," it said.
"Two weeks later, on the final day of this mission, China reported 409 newly confirmed cases. This decline in... cases across China is real."
The time "bought" by various measures should be used to develop tools and strategies that can help to eventually stop the virus, it said.
But it admitted that there were still unknowns about origins, virulence and progression of the virus, calling it "imperative" to fill these gaps soon.
SEE INSIGHT
