China Reports First Death From New Virus

Authorities in the Chinese city of Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia have also stepped up scrutiny.

The Hong Kong Hospital Authority said on Saturday that seven new patients between the ages of 3 and 50 who visited Wuhan in the last two weeks and presented with fever, respiratory or pneumonia symptoms had been admitted to local hospitals in the past 24 hours for monitoring, bringing the total number of patient cases in the city to 60 since Dec. 31.

Forty-six of those patients have already been discharged and the rest are in stable condition, the authority added.

Also on Saturday, South Korean officials said the illness of a Chinese woman they had placed under isolation earlier in the week was unrelated to the coronavirus, according to the country’s Yonhap news agency. The woman had visited Wuhan and suffered from coughing the throat irritation.

The Chinese government has faced pressure to release more information about the virus. In 2002, after SARS, a dangerous respiratory disease, first broke out, the Chinese government tried to cover up the extent of the epidemic, severely undermining public trust. Some experts have argued that China should disclose more details about the recent outbreak, such as the transmission route, the incubation period and the ages and genders of the patients.

Chinese health officials have cautioned that more research is necessary to fully understand the new virus. The World Health Organization has praised Chinese health officials’ response to the latest outbreak.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that infect animals and people, and some cause only the symptoms associated with the common cold. Health officials in China have said that symptoms of the new illness include high fever, difficulty breathing and lung lesions.

Amy Qin reported from Hong Kong, and Javier C. Hernández from Guangzhou, China. Elsie Chen contributed research.