China recorded an additional 98 deaths from corona virus, bringing the total number of deaths from epidemics to 1,873 worldwide.

Hubei Province health official, corona pneumonia center (Covid-19), today announced an additional 1,807 cases of infection and 93 deaths, bringing the total number of infected people in the province to 59,989 and the number of deaths is 1.789. Of these, Wuhan City recorded 1,600 new infections and 72 deaths.

New cases in Hubei increased by 3%, while deaths increased by 5% compared to yesterday.

The National Health Commission of China later said the country recorded 98 deaths and 1,886 new infections. Mainland China currently records 72,436 cases and 1,868 deaths.

Worldwide, 73,332 cases of nCoV and 1,873 people died from the disease, while 12,712 people recovered. Five deaths were recorded outside mainland China in Japan, Hong Kong, France, the Philippines and Taiwan.

China's annual parliamentary session scheduled to open in early March could be postponed due to the epidemic. "The Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party is scheduled to meet next week to make a preliminary decision on postponing the third session of the 13th National People's Congress," Xinhua reported.

The Covid-19 epidemic broke out in Wuhan from December 2019, spreading to 27 countries and territories. Hubei officials announced a change in the method of calculating the number of cases from February 13, in which cases with clinical manifestations or clinically diagnosed viral infections will be included in the new case data.

The Chinese military yesterday sent 1,200 medical doctors to Wuhan to deal with the corona virus, bringing the total number of military troops in hospitals to 4,000, many of whom have experienced SARS and Ebola. Hoa Than Son field hospital with 1,000 beds is currently operated by 1,400 military medical personnel.

The country with the second largest number of nCoV infections after China was Japan with 619 cases. Most cases in Japan have been linked to the Diamond Princess yacht being quarantined at the port of Yokohama when 454 people on board were positive for the virus.

A spokesman for China's National Health Commission said on Feb. 16 that the figures showed the disease was under control. However, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned that "it is impossible to predict which direction the disease will go".

Places where Covid-19 patients are infected. Click on image to see details.