China has yet to reach ‘turning point’ in coronavirus fight, officials say

BEIJING — China’s leadership sounded a cautious note Friday about the country’s progress in halting the spread of the new virus that has now killed more than 2,200 people, after several days of upbeat messages.

The Politburo, made up of the senior officials of the ruling Communist Party, said the situation in Hubei province and its capital, Wuhan, remains grave.

“We should clearly see that the turning point of the development of the epidemic across the country hasn’t arrived yet,” the Politburo said at a meeting led by President Xi Jinping and reported by state broadcaster CCTV.

The 25-member body said the outbreak has been “preliminarily contained” and urged party committees and governments at all levels to carry out prevention and control work without any relaxation to “win the people’s war against the epidemic.”

The National Heath Commission earlier reported 889 newly confirmed cases in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total in mainland China to 75,465. The death toll rose by 118 to 2,236. More than 1,000 cases and 14 deaths have been confirmed elsewhere, from Japan to France.

Newly reported infections in China have trended downward in recent days, though changes in how health authorities have counted cases have muddied the true trajectory of the epidemic.

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