on january 20, 2020, chinese premier li keqiang called for efforts to stop and control the pneumonia epidemic caused by a novel coronavirus. as of february 5, 2020, 24,588 cases have been confirmed, including in every province-level division of china. a larger number of people may have been infected, but not detected (especially mild cases). the first local transmission of the virus outside china occurred in vietnam between family members, while the first local transmission not involving family occurred in germany, on january 22, when a german man contracted the disease from a chinese business visitor at a meeting. , 493 deaths have been attributed to the virus since the first confirmed death on january 9, with 990 recoveries. the first death outside china was reported in the philippines, in a 44-year-old chinese male on february 1. but another source reported: