NBCNEWS
The number of deaths attributed to the coronavirus outbreak in China rose by more than 100 on Monday, bringing the total number of deaths across the country’s 31 provinces to 1,016, officials said.
The number of deaths is well beyond the toll of the 2002-03 outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which was caused by a virus related to the current pathogen and claimed the lives of almost 800 people.
The country’s National Health Commission said there were more than 42,600 confirmed cases.
Earlier, Chinese authorities said that there was hope the spread of the coronavirus might soon reach a turning point.
But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there had been “concerning instances” of transmission from people who had not been to China.
“The detection of a small number of cases may indicate more widespread transmission in other countries; in short, we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg,” he said in Geneva
