Coronavirus: South Korea records almost 300 new infections as Hong Kong confirms first child case

China’s National Health Commission said there were also 52 new deaths, all of them in Hubei, the central Chinese province at the heart of the outbreak. This compared with 508 new cases – a fall of 102 – and 71 deaths a day earlier.

There were only five new infections outside Hubei. So far, 29,745 patients on mainland China have recovered from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

South Korea cases exceed 1,100

South Korea reported 284 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of infections there to 1,261.

Many of the confirmed cases came from two clusters of infections – linked to a religious sect in the southeastern city of Daegu and a hospital in the neighbouring county of Cheongdo, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

Of the 169 new cases reported in the morning, 153 are in Daegu, 300km southeast of Seoul, and neighbouring North Gyeongsang province, but nearly all major provinces and cities have reported some infections, including four cases in the capital Seoul, according to the Korea Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). A further 115 cases were reported in the afternoon.

Busan, South Korea's second-largest city, reported eight new cases and Gyeonggi province reported one new case on Wednesday morning, the KCDC said. So far, 11 people have died in South Korea from the virus, including a 36-year-old Mongolian national who was hospitalised for a liver transplant.

Meanwhile, an American soldier stationed at Camp Carroll in South Korea has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a US Forces Korea (USFK) statement. The 23-year-old man is the first US service member to test positive for the virus, and is currently in self quarantine at his off-base residence.

First child case in Hong Kong

A 16-year-old boy from the ill-fated Diamond Princess cruise ship has become the first child in Hong Kong to be diagnosed with the coronavirus.

The teenager was one of four patients confirmed to be infected with Covid-19 on Wednesday, the Centre for Health Protection said in a press conference, taking the city’s official total to 89.

His 21-year-old sister, who was also on the Diamond Princess quarantined off Japan’s coast earlier this month, has given positive readings as well.

China says Wall Street Journal ‘admits mistakes’

China’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that The Wall Street Journal had “admitted its mistakes” over the headline of an opinion piece about the coronavirus, which Beijing gave as its reason for expelling three of its correspondents from the country.

At its daily press conference, a foreign ministry spokesperson went on to say it “could not help but ask” whether the newspaper was an agent for the US government.

Beijing slammed the February 3 headline – “China is the Real Sick Man of Asia,” on the newspaper's commentary piece by US academic Walter Russel Mead – as racist and revoked the credentials of three of its correspondents, in an unprecedented move that was condemned by Washington.

Hu Xijin, editor of the state-run tabloid Global Times, posted to Twitter late on Tuesday that sources told him senior executives of the Journal had written a second letter to the Chinese side. “They've recognised the harm and fury caused by a commentary published by the newspaper previously and they're uncomfortable about it. It seems the WSJ doesn't want the issue to expand,” he wrote.

Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, declined to comment on whether a second letter had been sent. An internal letter calling for the newspaper’s leadership to apologise for the “derogatory” headline was signed by 53 reporters and editors.

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