As Death Toll Rises, Mayor at Center of Outbreak Offers to Resign

Deaths rise to at least 80 as China records thousands of new cases.

An outbreak of a new coronavirus that began in the Chinese city of Wuhan has already killed 80 people in China. Infections have been confirmed in many other countries. But of the nearly 3,000 people who have so far contracted the virus, the vast majority live in China.

◆ The death toll in China had risen to at least 80 by Monday. Most of those deaths, 76 people, were in the central province of Hubei, the center of the outbreak. Shanghai, a city of 24 million, recorded its first death on Saturday.

◆ Across China there have been 2,744 confirmed cases, of which 1,423 cases were in Hubei. The youngest confirmed case is a 9-month-old girl in Beijing.

◆ The mayor of Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei, said there were about 3,000 patients in the city being treated for the virus. Half of those patients, he said, would eventually test positive for the disease.