103 dead in a single day: Coronavirus epidemic continues

China has announced strict new measures in Beijing as it attempts to stem the spread of coronavirus, with the death toll steadily rising.

China is escalating attempts to prevent the spread of coronavirus, ordering new measures in Beijing.

A new order limits access for outsiders to residential communities and villages in the city’s capital.

In a 10-point circular published on Sunday, the city’s municipal authority ordered check points be established to examine body temperatures and said only residents’ vehicles would be allowed into each community.

A complete lockdown of those areas will be imposed if a single case of coronavirus is discovered, the South China Morning Post reported.

The deadly virus is showing no sign of slowing down, with the illness killing more than 100 people in a single day.

The number of fatalities from China’s new-coronavirus epidemic jumped to 1011 nationwide today after hard-hit Hubei province reported 103 new deaths.

The virus originated in Wuhan, a city in Hubei, in December and has since spread globally.

In its daily update, Hubei’s health commission also confirmed another 2097 new cases in the central province.

China has been struggling to recover since the outbreak emerged in December with much of the country forced into quarantine.

There are now more than 42,200 confirmed cases across China, based on previously released figures from the government.

The new virus is believed to have emerged last year in a market that sells wild animals in Hubei’s capital Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with medical workers and patients affected at a hospital in Beijing on Monday, where he called for “more decisive measures” to contain the outbreak, said state broadcaster CCTV.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, wearing a protective face mask, receives a temperature check as he visits a community health centre in Beijing. Picture: Pang Xinglei/Xinhua via AP

The outbreak has prompted unprecedented action by the Chinese government, including locking down entire cities in Hubei as well as cutting transport links nationwide, closing tourist attractions and telling hundreds of millions of people to stay indoors.

And in a further effort to curb the rapidly spreading virus, Chinese authorities have partially locked down more than 80 cities in nearly 20 provinces since the epidemic.

The sweeping measures have turned cities into ghost towns — but there were some signs of normality returning as many went back to work this week.

People in mainland China have begun returning to work after the extended Lunar New Year holiday.

The return to work has caused the number of confirmed infections to skyrocket with more than 3,000 new cases on Sunday according to China’s National Health Commission.

Roads in Beijing and the financial hub of Shanghai had significantly more traffic, while the southern city of Guangzhou said it would start to resume normal public transport.

However, many of those returning to work were uneasy.

“Of course we’re worried,” a 25-year-old told Reuters in a Beijing beauty salon that reopened yesterday.

“When customers come in, we first take their temperature, then use disinfectant and ask them to wash their hands.”

The Shanghai government suggested staggered work schedules, avoiding group meals and keeping at least one metre away from colleagues.

People wear protective masks as they ride on a nearly empty train during the evening rush last night in Beijing. Picture: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

Many were encouraged to work from home and some employers simply delayed opening for another week.

State media reported that passenger numbers on the Beijing subway were half that of a normal working day.

Large shopping malls in the capital were deserted and many banks closed. One bank employee in Shanghai was heading to work for a half-day, with other workers due to take over in the afternoon. The rest of the day he would work from home.

“It makes our work more difficult,” he told AFP.

Schools and universities across the country remained shut.

The toll has overtaken global fatalities in the 2002-03 SARS epidemic when China drew international condemnation for covering up cases, though Beijing has drawn praise from the World Health Organisation this time.

An advance team for a WHO-led international expert mission on the virus arrived in China late Monday, headed by Bruce Aylward who oversaw the organisation’s 2014-2016 response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

Ahead of the team’s arrival, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned there had been some “concerning instances” of cases overseas in people with no travel history to China.

“We may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg,” he tweeted.

The WHO said the spread of coronavirus cases among people who have not been to China could be “the spark that becomes a bigger fire” and the human race must not let the epidemic get out of control.

China will speed up the provision of medicines that show clinical effects against the coronavirus.

More than 100 people died in a single day from the virus. Picture: Billy H.C. Kwok/Getty Images