Coronavirus toll continues to rise rapidly in China


The death toll from China's coronavirus outbreak surged again on Thursday, rising by 73 to a total of 563 people, Reuters reports. It was the third straight record one-day increase. There have been two deaths outside mainland China, one in the Philippines and the other in Hong Kong. Another 10 cases were confirmed on a quarantined cruise ship in the Japanese port of Yokohama, bringing the total cases on board to 20.
Experts are intensifying a push to develop a vaccine for the flu-like virus. Drugmakers warned they still had a long way to go before finding an effective treatment, although a report of a possible "breakthrough" lifted financial markets that have been struggling against fears of an economic backlash from the outbreak.
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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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