January 23 coronavirus news

Regional health authorities in China have confirmed 13 new cases of the Wuhan coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases in mainland China to 611, and 622 globally. 

Seventeen people have died from the illness, all in China.

Eight more cases were confirmed in Beijing. Shaanxi Province and the Xinjiang Autonomous Region confirmed three and two cases, respectively.

The self-governing island of Taiwan has reported a confirmed case of the coronavirus. There is also one confirmed case in Japan, one in South Korea, three in Thailand, two in Macao, one in Singapore, one in Saudi Arabia and one in US.

Scientists say the death rate of Wuhan coronavirus is not as high as the SARS virus -- which swept through Asia in 2003 -- but added that the number of people infected is climbing.

Here's how the two match up:

Doctors in Singapore have diagnosed a 66-year-old Chinese national with Wuhan coronavirus, according to a spokeswoman at the city’s Ministry of Health.

Officer Elfa Elyes said that the male patient arrived in Singapore from Wuhan on Monday January 20. The patient developed a fever and a cough on January 21, and was admitted into isolation the next day.

Singapore's Ministry of Health has also been investigating a second case whose preliminary test for the virus was positive. The patient is a 53-year-old female from Wuhan. The ministry is now awaiting further test results to formally confirm that she has the virus. 

An Indian nurse in Saudi Arabia has been diagnosed with Wuhan coronavirus, according to India’s foreign office.

“About 100 Indian nurses mostly from Kerala working at Al-Hayat hospital have been tested and none except one nurse was found infected by Corona virus," tweeted Vellamvelly Muraleedharan, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, on Thursday.

"Affected nurse is being treated at Aseer National Hospital and is recovering well,” he added.

Saudi officials didn’t immediately respond to CNN's request for comment.

The UK is “well prepared” to handle cases of Wuhan coronavirus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Thursday.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Hancock said “the chief medical officer has revised the risk to the UK population from very low to low and has concluded that while there is an increased likelihood that cases may rise in this country, we are well prepared and well equipped to deal with them.”

There are currently no confirmed cases of the virus in the UK.

The health secretary did however say that this is a “rapidly developing situation” and he expected the number of cases and deaths to rise, but so far all fatalities have been in mainland China.

From the first reported case in December, in Hubei province, the Wuhan coronavirus has spread to almost all of China's administrative regions this week.

The Wuhan coronavirus that has killed at least 17 people and infected more than 600 spreads more easily from person to person than previously thought, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) official.

“We are now seeing second and third generation spread,” said Dr. David Heymann, the chairperson of a WHO committee that is gathering data on the virus.

Third generation means that someone who became infected after handling animals at the market in Wuhan, China, spreads the virus to someone else, who then spreads it to a third person.

The virus initially appeared to spread only by very close contact that would typically occur within a family, such as hugging, kissing, or sharing eating utensils, Heymann said.

Now, he says evidence is accruing that shows more distant contact could spread the virus, such as if a sick person were to sneeze or cough near someone else’s face.

He said there is no evidence at this point that the virus is airborne and could be spread across a room, as happens with the flu or measles.

Travel restrictions have been put in place in Ezhou, the third Chinese city to be affected by measures aimed at controlling the spread of coronavirus.

Ezhou’s railway station has been closed "in order to fully conduct prevention and control of the new type of pneumonia causing coronavirus, effectively cut off the transmission of the virus, resolutely curb the spread of the epidemic, and ensure the safety and health of the people," according to a Thursday statement from the Ezhou City Coronavirus Disease Prevention Control Headquarters.

Earlier in the day public transport and long distance transport networks were suspended in nearby Huanggang, according to its municipal government.

Huanggang's central market is temporarily closed, as well as all entertainment venues, public halls, movie theaters and tourism centers.

Cars coming in and out of the city will be checked and searched, and people will have their temperatures taken.