National Health Commission

The new strain of coronavirus spreading across China claimed its first victim in Beijing, officials said on Jan. 28, as the death toll climbed to 106, the United States warned citizens against trips to the country and financial markets recoiled again at the potential impact on the world's second-biggest economy.   

The death toll from a new virus has risen to 80 with more than 2,700 confirmed cases, China's government said on Jan. 27, after the health minister warned that the virus's ability to "spread is getting stronger."

China also on Jan. 27 extended the Lunar New Year holiday by 3 days to next Sunday in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.

The death toll in China from the novel coronavirus outbreak has climbed to 56, local media reported on Jan. 26.

"During the past 24 hours, 688 new confirmed cases, 1,309 new suspected cases and 15 deaths from the disease (13 in Hubei, one in Shanghai and one in Henan) were reported," Xinhua news agency said in a report, citing China's National Health Commission.

China's most festive holiday began in the shadow of a worrying new virus on Jan. 25 as the death toll surpassed 40, an unprecedented lockdown that kept people from traveling was expanded to more than 50 million residents and authorities canceled a host of Lunar New Year events.

The death toll from a new flu-like coronavirus in China rose to nine on Jan. 22 with 440 confirmed cases, Chinese health officials said as authorities stepped up efforts to control the outbreak by discouraging public gatherings in Hubei province.

With millions of Asians traveling on Jan. 21 for the Lunar New Year holiday, authorities in China confirmed that a new virus could be spread through human contact, reporting 15 medical staff had been infected and a fourth person had died.    

The number of recorded HIV/AIDS patients in Turkey has increased 522 percent over the course of the last decade, bringing the total number of AIDS patients in the country to 11,906, according to a member of Turkey's National Health Commission.