BEIJING/MANILA, Philippines — China’s eastern port of Wenzhou on Sunday became the first city outside central Hubei province to impose quarantine measures due to the new coronavirus outbreak, which claimed its first recorded fatality outside China.
Wenzhou, a city of 9 million on China’s east coast, is some 435 miles from Wuhan, the city in Hubei where the virus first broke out in December.
Families will only be permitted to send one family member out of the house every two days to buy necessities, according to city authorities. Residents have been advised not leave their homes except to seek medical treatment or related reasons.
Wenzhou in Zhejiang province joins the 14 cities in Hubei that remain on lockdown as deaths from coronavirus reached more than 300 nationwide on Sunday.
Widespread travel restrictions have been unable to stop the spread of infections, with the number of confirmed cases standing at 14,380.
The Philippines on Sunday reported the first fatality outside China from coronavirus.
A 44-year-old Chinese man died on Saturday after falling ill in late January. He had travelled to the Philippines from Wuhan via Hong Kong with a Chinese companion on Jan. 21.
Outside China, more than 100 people have fallen ill with the virus in about two dozen countries across the globe.
Two more Germans were diagnosed with the virus after being flown back from Wuhan, authorities said on Sunday. They had no symptoms when they arrived in Germany in a group of around 120 people, health minister Jens Spahn said.
Around 20 passengers on a French chartered evacuation flight out of Wuhan were showing symptoms of the virus and would be tested, France’s health minister Agnes Buzyn.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak to be a global emergency.
The G7 states plan to discuss a unified approach to the coronavirus, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Sunday, after speaking to his U.S. counterpart.
As governments try to contain the virus’ spread, scientists have been making progress as they race to develop a vaccine.
Italian researcher at the National Institute for Infectious Diseases have isolated the rapidly spreading coronavirus, local media reported. The institute in Rome will make the results available for use in other countries so that further research can be carried out.
Isolating the virus means obtaining a pure microbial sample from an infected person rather than growing it in a laboratory, as has already been done by Australian scientists.
With markets due to reopen today after the Lunar New Year break, China’s central bank on Sunday said it would inject $173 billion into the economy to maintain liquidity.
