New Delhi (NVI): The outbreak of deadly coronavirus has forced Indian women’s hockey team to cancel its tour to China even as the death toll due to the virus has climbed to 636. The cancellation has now left the Hockey India federation with the difficult task of finding an opponent to compete with as part of its preparation for the Olympics.
The team was scheduled to travel to China from March 14 to 25.
In other news, a Chinese doctor who tried to warn about the coronavirus outbreak died due to the illness today. Li Wenliang, the whistleblower doctor, was summoned by the Chinese authorities when he tried to warn people of the disease outbreak. The death of the doctor drew angry reactions from people online.
Meanwhile, another 41 people on a cruise ship quarantined off Japan have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus, the country’s health minister said today, confirming that more on board will now be tested for the illness.
The newly diagnosed infections mean at least 61 people from the ship have contracted the virus, which has killed hundreds of people, most of them in China, and infected more than 30,000 on the mainland.
In another update, Chinese researchers have said that the deadly coronavirus outbreak in China could have spread from bats to humans through the illegal traffic of pangolins, the world’s only scaly mammals, which are prized in Asia for food and medicine.
Health experts think it may have originated in bats and then passed to humans, possibly via another species.
The genome sequence of the novel coronavirus strain separated from pangolins in the study was 99 per cent, identical to that from infected people, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported, adding that the research found the pangolins to be “the most likely intermediate host.”
The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in mainland China has risen to 636, according to the country’s National Health Commission on Friday.
Out of the total 73 new deaths reported, 69 cases were reported from Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, including 64 in the provincial capital Wuhan.
