Ground Zero of Virus Adds 115 Deaths; WHO Says Drug Trial Results 3 Weeks Away

Hubei, the province at the center of the coronavirus outbreak, reported 411 new cases and 115 fatalities, bringing China’s death toll to at least 2,233.

The numbers were in line with those reported Thursday, when China again revised its counting guidelines, raising doubts about the transparency of the data.

Anxiety has crept back into global financial markets as the outbreak spreads outside of China and investors weigh the impact on corporate earnings. The head of the World Health Organization said if countries don’t respond strongly now, the spread outside of China may become a wider threat.

Preliminary results from two clinical trials of treatments prioritized by the World Health Organization are expected in three weeks, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva Thursday.

One of the trials is for a pill combining the anti-retroviral medicines lopinavir and ritonavir, a brand-name combination of which is sold by AbbVie Inc. The second trial is testing the experimental injected drug remdesivir, which is being developed by Gilead Sciences Inc.

The trials are being run in China, where health officials are seeking ways to treat patients infected with the coronavirus using existing and experimental therapies.