Chinese President confident about scoring victory over coronavirus outbreak

Chinese President Xi Jinping, wearing a mask, on Monday toured Beijing city to oversee the efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak and said though the situation remained "very serious" China can score a full victory over the epidemic, which has emerged as the biggest challenge to his leadership.

The death toll from the outbreak rose to 909 with 98 new fatalities reported on Sunday, mostly in the worst-affected Hubei province. The confirmed cases of infection spiralled to 40,235, Chinese health officials said.

Xi, who mostly remained indoors while his No 2 Premier Li Keqiang, and other senior Communist Party officials toured affected areas including virus-hit Wuhan, on Monday went on an inspection of the epidemic prevention and control work in Beijing.

Wearing a mask, Xi spoke to the doctors and learnt about the treatment of infected patients. He made video calls to hospitals in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, state -run Xinhua news agency reported.

Speaking during the visit, Xi regarded as the most powerful leader of the ruling Communist Party in recent times, said China can certainly score a full victory in the fight against the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic.

Xi had earlier described the virus as a devil.

"We cannot let the devil hide, Xi said in a meeting with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, in Beijing last month.

"The situation at the moment remains very serious," he said, adding that the whole party, the armed forces and the people of all ethnic groups in China stand together with the people of Hubei province and its provincial capital Wuhan.

Hubei and Wuhan are the top priority for the epidemic prevention and control, he said amid reports of increasing public criticism over the way the government ignored early warnings of the virus until it turned pandemic.

"Wuhan is a heroic city and people of Hubei and Wuhan are heroic people who have never been crushed by any difficulty and danger in history. As long as our comrades work together, fight bravely and overcome difficulties, we certainly can score a full victory in the fight against the epidemic," Xi said.

The coronavirus outbreak infected 27 foreign nationals in China and two of them have died, Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

China awaited a team of international experts led by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The team is scheduled to arrive here on Monday night to assist the Chinese health officials in containing the coronavirus outbreak.

"I've just been at the airport seeing off members of an advance team for the @WHO-led 2019nCoV international expert mission to China, led by Dr Bruce Aylward, veteran of past public health emergencies," WHO director general Ghebreyesus said in a tweet.

China and the WHO will form a joint expert team to conduct in-depth discussions on and evaluations of the novel coronavirus epidemic and the containment, a spokesperson with the National Health Commission (NHC) said.

They will provide suggestions on joint prevention and control of the coronavirus outbreak to China and other affected countries in the next step, Mi Feng, an official with the NHC, told a press conference in Beijing.

"We welcome international experts including those from the United States to take part in the joint expert team," Mi said, adding that appropriate arrangements for the team will be made after thorough consultation and communication.

Meanwhile, India cleared some consignments of medical gear placed by China to combat the deadly coronavirus after setting aside export bans on all kinds of personal protection equipment.

The decision came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote a letter to President Xi offering solidarity and assistance to deal with the coronavirus outbreak in China that has claimed over 900 lives.

In the letter to Xi, Modi expressed solidarity with the president and people of China over the outbreak of the virus that has also infected over 40,000 people.

Prime Minister Modi also offered India's assistance to China to face the challenge, besides conveying condolences over the loss of lives due to the outbreak.

On January 31, India banned exports of all kinds of personal protection equipment, including clothing and masks used to protect people from air borne particles.

Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said a candidate vaccine targeting the novel coronavirus has been tested on animals.

The mRNA vaccine samples were injected into more than 100 mice on Sunday, Xinhua reported.

This came just two weeks after the centre successfully isolated the first new coronavirus strain on January 24.

A CDC official warned that the animal testing is in a very early stage of vaccine development and there are still many steps to be taken before the vaccine is ready to be used on humans.

Meanwhile, concerns about the virus rose in Beijing, Shanghai and several cities as millions of Chinese returned to work at the end of 17-day extended holidays as part of the Chinese New Year.

The Chinese government has asked to people to work from home.