Feb 06 , 2020. 2 hours ago – 11:33 KYODO NEWS

BEIJING – The new coronavirus has killed over 560 people in mainland China, with over 28,000 confirmed infected with the pneumonia-causing virus, Chinese health authorities said Thursday.

The outbreak has put governments across the world on alert, prompting many to impose restrictions on travelers from China while quarantining people returning from worst-affected areas of the country.

Taiwan on Thursday imposed a total ban on travelers entering from mainland China, while Hong Kong will impose a 14-day mandatory quarantine on all who arrive from the mainland from Saturday.

Authorities received reports of 73 new deaths and 3,694 more confirmed cases of infection on Wednesday, bringing the total to 563 and 28,018, respectively. Wuhan, the central Chinese city at the epicenter of the outbreak, accounted for 414 deaths, or 73.5 percent.

The Hubei provincial government confirmed 10,117 people have been infected. Wuhan is the capital of the province.

In Wuhan, the hardest-hit city, makeshift hospitals began accepting patients on Wednesday, state media said, amid reports that medical institutions there were becoming overwhelmed.

The temporary hospitals, including one that was created on the site of an exhibition center, have provided thousands of more beds for patients, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Wuhan, a business and transportation hub in the region with a population of 11 million, has been in virtual lockdown for the past two weeks to stop the outbreak from spreading further.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that in Wuhan, an approximately 30-hour-old baby was confirmed infected with the virus on Wednesday. The baby’s mother had contracted the virus while pregnant.

In Beijing on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with visiting Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and stressed the importance of coordinating with other countries in coping with the epidemic, according to the broadcaster.

Hun Sen became the first foreign leader to visit China since the country began battling the outbreak in earnest. He had planned to visit Wuhan, but was stopped from doing so by Chinese authorities who cited the need to focus on dealing with the crisis.

At a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee earlier this week, Xi called for “prompt and resolute actions” to contain the spread of the epidemic.

The meeting, chaired by Xi, said Wuhan remained the country’s top priority for epidemic prevention and control work, according to a Xinhua report.

Many companies in China have allowed their employees to work from home or have idled their operations on orders from authorities even though the Lunar New Year holiday ended Sunday following a three-day extension on account of the outbreak.

The Chinese government plans to start returning things to normal as early as next week, but it remains unclear whether the outbreak can be contained once the movement of people increases.

The vast majority of confirmed cases have so far been concentrated in China, but infections have also been found in other Asian countries, Europe, North America, Oceania and the Middle East.

Two deaths have been confirmed outside mainland China, one in the Philippines and the other in Hong Kong.

CR: KYODO NEWS