Globalsecurity.org

More than 70 new medical facilities have joined in the battle against the novel coronavirus epidemic in the rural areas of central China's Hubei Province.

Central China's Hubei Province reported 1,220 new confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus and 42 new deaths on Thursday, local health authorities said Friday.

The central, provincial, city and county emergency anti-epidemic headquarters, which were established under the unified guidance of the Non-permanent Central Public Health Guidance Committee of the DPRK, have pushed ahead with the campaign to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

China has full confidence and capability to win the fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Friday.

Takeshi Kasai, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for the Western Pacific, praised China for focusing its efforts on how to bring the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak under control.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government is working with mainland authorities for a supply of more than 24 million face masks in an effort to ease local shortage of protective gear in the fight against spread of the novel coronavirus.

Beijing subway authorities on Friday said they have launched temperature detection measures in all of the city's subway stations.

As of Jan.30, major aspects of construction work pertaining to the Huoshenshan hospital have been completed. The assembly work related to the hospital wards is now underway, while the construction of pipe systems is now 60 percent complete.

Experts have developed a rapid nucleic test kit for the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in the city of Wuxi, east China's Jiangsu Province.

Iran's Minister of Health Saeed Namaki has demanded that the government prevent the entry of passengers from China amid the threat of coronavirus epidemic.

Iranian Minister of Health Saeed Namaki says Iran has temporarily halted all flights to and from China as the novel coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, spreads across the country and the rest of the world.

Wuhan residents and a citizen journalist at the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic say the city is fighting a losing battle as the death toll rose on Friday to 213, with nearly 10,000 confirmed cases around the world.

Medical staff in Hong Kong are threatening to strike if the city's government doesn't shut down its border with mainland China in the face of the coronavirus epidemic now spreading outwards from central China with nearly 10,000 confirmed cases and more than 200 deaths reported on Friday.

Pakistan says it is halting all flights to and from China after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the ongoing coronavirus outbreak a global emergency.

Russia has reported its first two cases of coronavirus, as governments scrambled to control the spread of a new coronavirus that has already killed more than 200 people in China.

The novel Coronavirus is spreading fast in China and causing health scares in many other countries with the World Health Organisation declaring it a global emergency. The death toll has swelled to 230, with 9,692 infected cases in China alone. As a precaution, health experts suggest wearing face masks in public places.

On Thursday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the new coronavirus a global health emergency.

Airlines around the world have been suspending all flights to China following the outbreak of the virus which has already claimed the lives of over 200 people.

Earlier in the day, the UK Foreign Office stated that a plane carrying 83 UK and 27 foreign nationals had left the Chinese city of Wuhan.

On 30 January, the World Health Organisation declared the spread of the Novel Coronavirus a 'Public Health Emergency of International Concern'.