Coronavirus updates: The latest from around the world – Yahoo Finance

This post has been updated as of 10:55 AM E.T. on Feb. 14.

Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, 64,460 people have fallen ill worldwide.

China is the epicenter of the outbreak. On Thursday, the country confirmed 15,152 additional cases of the coronavirus and 254 deaths in a press conference on Thursday. Chinas total number of cases is 63,866 and the death toll has now risen to 1,384.

More than 1,700 medical workers have been infected by the virus, China said, according to CNN. Six have died.

China is facing an unprecedented health crisis, SecretaryofHealthand Human Services Alex Azar told Yahoo Finance in an interview. Some of this may simply be the chaos involved in quarantining over 60 million people and trying to contain a an unknown, rapidly evolving, unknown virus spreading in your country.

Azar added: But we must ensure that the response is transparent and vigorous, and that's something the World Health Organization has got to ensure that China is held to account for transparency and cooperation by the same standards that they would require of the United States or any other country.

Even though the coronavirus outbreak remains contained largely in mainland China and its immediate regions, other parts of the world are also being affected.

There are currently 15 confirmed cases in the U.S. The latest case was discovered in Texas, at the Lackland Air Force Base, according to the CDC. Japan has announced that one person has died due to the virus.

The virus has taken more lives than the deadly Severe Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002, and several industries like travel and hospitality are scaling back operations in China, while others like Boeing sound off on concerns their difficulties operating in China.

Masked people shoot propaganda footage of the fight against Covid-19 in Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang province Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020. (Photo: Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

The outbreak began in Wuhan, which is the capital of Chinas central provide of Hubei. The virus strain was previously unknown and is speculated to have emerged late last year from illegally traded wildlife at a market in Wuhan, according to Reuters.

A very similar version of the coronavirus today had actually caused SARS almost a decade ago, and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome), The Guardian reported.

Stats from China indicate that around 2% of those infected with the new virus have died, but many of them were elderly or had prior medical conditions, Reuters reported. The mortality rate for SARS was similar when it first began, but peaked at almost 10%.

Over 1,000 people have died from the coronavirus outbreak. (Graphic: David Foster)

While the outbreak has spread globally, Hubei province in China remains the epicenter. On Feb. 6, the whistleblower doctor, who had been punished for revealing the deadly respiratory virus, died.

Chinas senior medical advisor said earlier this week on Tuesday that the number of new infections are slowing, and that the outbreak may be over in April.

But during a press conference on Thursday, it revised the number of new cases and the number of deaths.

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A WHO spokesperson told Yahoo Finance the spike in cases is not abnormal.

"As is normal in a newly emerging infectious disease, case definitions adapt to improved understanding and the 13,332 clinically diagnosed cases are not newly identified in the last 24 hours only, the spokesperson stated. They include retrospectively identified cases from earlier in the epidemic; it is not uncommon for surveillance data to be updated as new definitions are adopted."

In the meantime, several countries have imposed travel restrictions from Singapore (travel ban) to the U.S.(travel restrictions).

Azar added that the U.S. has also launched a surveillance system in five cities Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago and New York to monitor people with potential flu-like symptoms.

The uncertainty is worrying health care experts.

I think now that its in more countries even Singapore, which is really good at tracing cases, has found some cases that arent linked to previous known cases its clear that there are probably many cases in countries where we havent yet found them, Marc Lipsitch, professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told theHarvard Gazette earlier this week.

The World Health Organization (WHO) echoed that sentiment on Friday.

How big is the iceberg? Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHOs emergencies program, said at a news conference. The question is how much is happening outside what we see?

Anjalee Khemlani is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter:@AnjKhem

Aarthi Swaminathan is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. She can be reached at aarthi@yahoofinance.com. Follow her on Twitter @aarthiswami.

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Coronavirus updates: The latest from around the world - Yahoo Finance