Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
The government of the People’s Republic of China, said it has seen a steady increase in the number of patients recovering from the 2019 novel coronavirus infection since January 30, 2020.
The Chinese Government, in the February 7, 2020 edition of the newsletter on fighting 2019-nCoV, disclosed that the National Health Commission of China confirmed in all that 1,540 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital.
Guo Yangong, an official with the National Health Commission, China, said as of Thursday, the numbers of people cured and discharged rose to 1,540 in China’s battle against the virus.
Guo added that an expert analysis was commissioned by authorities on more than 500 cured cases, including both cases with mild symptoms and severe cases and even those who had complicated conditions.
The average hospitalisation time of the more than 500 cured patients, according to Guo, was about 10 days, while also saying that in summing up the treatment methods for the cured patients, experts noted that some antiviral treatment methods, including both symptomatic treatment and supportive therapies, especially the use of traditional Chinese medicine, have produced good effects.
“We will actively sum up the experience and continuously integrate the methods into the diagnosis and treatment guideline to guide the clinical treatment of patients and greatly improve the cure rate,” Guo said.
Also speaking, Wang Guiqiang, the director of the Infectious Disease Department under the Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, China, said data received from Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, showed that severe cases, even critically-ill patients, can be cured through reasonable and active treatment.
While saying that “this has greatly boosted our confidence,” Wang expressed hope that the recent reinforcements of health professionals, especially intensive care staff, will greatly help improve the cure rate and reduce the fatality rate of severe cases.
In the newsletter made available to our correspondent in Abuja by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Nigeria, the Government of China stated that it received 31,161 reports of confirmed cases and 636 deaths on the Chinese mainland.
“As of 24:00 on Feb 5, the National Health Commission had received 31,161 reports of confirmed cases and 636 deaths on the Chinese mainland, and in all, 1,540 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. There still remained 24,702 suspected cases.
So far, 186,045 are now under medical observation, who have been identified as having had close contact with infected patients.
“The number of confirmed infections in the China’s Hong Kong (24, including 1 death) and Macao (10, including 1 cured) special administrative regions and Taiwan province (16 including 1 cured) had risen to 50 in total, according to the commission,” the Chinese Government said.