The number of deaths by Coronavirus epidemic has officially exceeded the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus after 81 new fatalities were reported on Sunday taking the death toll to 811. The SARS virus had killed over 774 people globally between 2002-2003.


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The number of confirmed cases across China has crossed 37,000. Hubei province's health commission confirmed another 2,147 new cases in its daily update. 


Chinese health authorities said it received reports of 2,656 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 89 deaths on Saturday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Xinhua reported.


On Saturday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) that the number of cases reported from China is "stabilising" -- but cautioned that it was too early to say if the virus has peaked. Dr Tedros Adhanom, Director-General of WHO in a press statement said that facts were more important than fear stressing that access to accurate information could help save lives.


He said, "While the 2019nCoV virus spreads, misinformation makes the job of our heroic health workers even harder. It is diverting the attention of decision-makers. And it causes confusion and spreads fear to the general public."


The two confirmed fatalities outside mainland China is the death of a Chinese national in the Philippines and a 39-year-old man in Hong Kong.


In India, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare in a press statement on February 8 said that universal screening for all flights from Singapore and Thailand besides Hong Kong and China is already ongoing at earmarked aero-bridges. It was informed that out of the 1449 samples that were tested as many as 1446 samples were found negative except for the three samples which had tested positive from Kerala.


(With agency inputs)