Coronavirus death toll in China crosses 1,000; India's first patient tests 'negative'

With 108 new casualties on Monday, the death toll in China due to the deadly novel coronavirus outbreak has reached 1,016 as reported by the health authority on Tuesday. 

The highest daily increase was reported on Monday with 97 deaths. 

Of the new deaths, 103 were in the province of Hubei, including 67 in the provincial capital of Wuhan where the epidemic is believed to have originated.

The other fatalities on Monday were in the provinces of Heilongjiang, Anhui and Henan and the cities of Tianjin and Beijing, the National Health Commission said.

The commission said there were another 2,478 new confirmed cases in China on Feb. 10, down from 3,062 on the previous day and bringing the accumulated total to 42,638.

On Monday, China's President Xi Jinping also appeared in public for the first time since the epidemic began, inspecting health workers in Beijing.

In India, the first person who had earlier been tested positive for Novel Coronavirus infection after arriving from Wuhan city in China has now recovered and tested negative for the virus infection, health officials stated. 

After the first positive case was reported from Thrissur, two other Keralite students from Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, had tested positive in Alappuzha and Kasaragod districts. The health department had earlier said those in isolation wards of various hospitals in Kerala have come down to 34.

"A total of 3,252 are still under observation across the state, of which 3,218 are under home quarantine," a release issued by the health department said.

The department has already sent at least 345 samples for testing at the NIV at Pune and so far 326 results have returned negative. The 'state calamity' alert, which was declared on February 3, was withdrawn on Friday after no new positive cases of infection were detected. 

(Inputs from Reuters)