China reported on Monday a sharp rise in the number of people affected in a pneumonia outbreak caused by a new coronoavirus , including the first cases in the capital.
The outbreak started in the central city of Wuhan. Authorities and media reports said the total number of infected people has topped 200. Wuhan authorities said a third person had died in their city.
Authorities in Shenzhan in southern China reported one case, and Chinese state media said Beijing had reported two cases. Wuhan authorities said they had found 136 new cases, bringing the total in the city to 198.
New cases surge
An outbreak of a new coronavirus in China has spread to more cities, Chinese authorities said on Monday, as the number of patients tripled and a third person died, stoking concerns about the containment of the virus.
The Daxing health commission in the capital Beijing said it had confirmed two cases of coronavirus, while the southern Guangdong province's health commission confirmed one case in Shenzhen. They mark the first cases in China beyond the central city of Wuhan where the virus first emerged. Hundreds of millions of Chinese tourists will be traveling domestically and abroad during the Lunar New Year holiday period that starts later this week.
A report by London Imperial College's MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis estimated that by Jan. 12 there were 1,723 cases in Wuhan City with onset of related symptoms. Chinese health authorities have not commented directly on the report.
