China is taking unprecedented steps aimed at containing the coronavirus outbreak. Authorities are seeking to control the spread of the disease in the lead up to the world's biggest annual human migration.
Chinese authorities have taken an extraordinary step: they have cancelled this weekend’s Lunar New Year celebrations in Beijing.
Chinese New Year festivities, which see the largest annual migration of people anywhere in the world, are due to kick off from Saturday, but in Beijing, authorities have decided that there will be no public events to mark the holiday.
China's health officials said the virus can be passed onto others by respiratory transmission.
Citing the National Health Commission of China, media report say the number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus rises in China to 830 with 25 deaths. On Thursday, the first death was also confirmed outside Hubei.
Meanwhile, CNN says deaths in China from the new coronavirus outbreak in the provincial city of Wuhan has now soared to 25 from 17 fatalities hours earlier, and the number of infected people in the country has jumped to 853.
The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO), however, yesterday decided against declaring the outbreak a global public health emergency.
"Make no mistake, this is an emergency in China," said the WHO in a statement. "But it has not yet become a global health emergency."
