Coronavirus: 5,000 new cases in China as antiviral drugs are tested

(Patria) – The coronavirus epidemic still shows no signs of having peaked – on Friday alone, Chinese authorities reported 5,000 new infections.

China's National Health Commission reported 121 new deaths and 5,090 new infections on February 13, bringing the cumulative number of infected to 63,851.

Approximately 55,748 people are undergoing treatment, while the total death toll has risen to 1,380.

The new figures do not indicate that the epidemic is nearing its peak, despite the fact that Chinese authorities are doing everything in their power to prevent the spread of the infection.

At the same time, two antiviral drugs are being tested, but preliminary results are still far off, Reuters reports.

The World Health Organization (WHO) urges governments and pharmaceutical companies to begin the costly work on developing a vaccine against the COVID-19 virus as soon as possible.

- Major decisions must be made because vaccines require huge investments, says emergency director Michael Ryan, adding that it involves 'hundreds of millions of dollars for several potential vaccines that are not even certain to work'.

The director of a hospital in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak began and which has now been effectively turned into a quarantine zone to prevent its spread, claims that plasma infusions from recovered patients have shown encouraging preliminary results.

Japanese authorities confirmed the first coronavirus-related death on Thursday. The victim was an 80-year-old woman who lived near Tokyo. This is the third death in China, in addition to two in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines. Meanwhile, the number of cases in Japan continues to rise, making it the most affected country among the roughly twenty countries and territories outside mainland China where the infection has appeared.