China's latest coronavirus data enhances understanding

The World Health Organization has said that the latest data from China helps it better understand the novel coronavirus disease, known as COVID-19, enabling it to provide better advice to member countries.

By 6:00 am Geneva time on Monday, China reported a total of 70,635 cases of COVID-19, including 1,772 deaths. In the last 24 hours, 2,051 new cases, which include both clinically confirmed and lab confirmed cases, were reported.

Some 94 percent of new cases come from Hubei province. Outside China, there were 694 cases in 25 countries and three deaths, the WHO announced.

"As more data comes in from China, we are starting to get a clearer picture of the outbreak. How it's developing and where it could be headed," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

China on Monday published a paper with detailed data on more than 44,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, which provides a better understanding about the age range of people affected, the severity of their diseases and the mortality rate.

"It is very important in enabling WHO to provide good evidence-based advice to countries," Tedros said.

While the data appears to show a decline of new cases, Tedros warned that the trend must be interpreted cautiously. "Trends could change as new populations are affected. It's too early to tell if this decline will continue. Every scenario is still on the table," he said.

The WHO chief said that COVID-19 does not appear as deadly compared with other coronavirus including SARS and MERS.

Data shows that more than 80 percent of patients have a mild form of the disease and will recover. In about 14 percent of the cases, the virus causes severe disease, including pneumonia and shortness of breath. And about 5 percent of the patients have a critical form, such as respiratory failure and multiple organ failure. In 2 percent of the reported cases, the virus is fatal, and the risk of that increases with age.

"We see relatively few cases among children. More research is needed to understand why," Tedros said.

He called on countries to seize the window of opportunity still left now. "We need resources now to ensure countries are prepared now. We don't know how long this window of opportunity will remain open. Let's not squander it," he said.

Tedros said a WHO international team of experts is now on the ground in China working with Chinese counterparts to better understand the outbreak.

Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, said the team had important face-to-face meetings with their Chinese counterparts. "It's excellent to see such eminent international experts working side by side with their Chinese counterparts," he said.

He said the team would visit the provinces to see things "on the ground" and continue their work together.