(Bloomberg) -- The coronavirus disease spreading around the world has killed 805 people, exceeding the death toll from the global outbreak of SARS that started in China almost two decades ago.

Reported cases in China alone exceed 36,600 less than two months after surfacing in late December in Wuhan.

The 2002-2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, killed 774 people and sickened almost 8,100 others, in 26 countries, over eight months, the World Health Organization said. Mainland China accounted for about 45% of SARS deaths.

Key Developments

• Hubei province deaths at 780; confirmed cases at 27,100
• Singapore confirms seven new cases, pushes total to 40
• Five Britons on ski holiday in French Alps are infected
• Carmaker VW delays restarting China joint ventures
• World’s retailers take hit as Chinese shoppers stay home

Bloomberg is tracking the outbreak on the terminal and online.

U.K. Makes Final Evacuation Flight (3:45 p.m. NY)

The final flight taking British citizens and others out of China has left Wuhan carrying more than 200 passengers, a U.K. Foreign Office spokesman said in Saturday a statement. The flight is due to land in the U.K. early Sunday.

Those on board include government officials who arranged the flight and medics, according to the statement.

“Alongside British nationals, there are other nationalities on board,” the official said.

The first group of U.K. citizens returned on a flight last month and remain in quarantine.

WHO to Send Team to China (1:15 p.m. NY)

The World Health Organization expects a team to leave for China in the next few days, starting with a leader still to be named, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Saturday at a briefing on the spreading coronavirus.

The team’s leader will fly to China early in the week with the others heading to the center of the coronavirus outbreak later, he said at a briefing in Geneva. China responded Saturday to an offer to send the experts, he added.

Asked whether the U.S. Centers for Disease Control would have representatives on the team, Ghebreyesus said: “We hope so.”

Cases in Hubei Haven’t Advanced: WHO (11:45 a.m. NY)

There has been a stabilization in the number of cases reported in Hubei province, epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic, Michael Ryan, the executive director of the World Health Organization’s health emergencies program, told reporters Saturday in Geneva.

“We’re in a four-day stable period where the number of reported cases hasn’t advanced and that’s good news and may reflect the impact of the control measures we’ve put in place,” Ryan said. “But remember there are lot of suspected cases still to be tested.”

Two provinces outside Hubei -- Guangdong and Zhejiang -- each have more than 1,000 cases. It’s hard to say if the rate of infection in those regions is increasing or decreasing as the WHO is still learning when symptoms first appeared, said Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the outbreak investigation task force.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sounded a note of caution about being too optimistic over signs of stabilization.

“But even that I think we have to understand it with caution because as you know epidemics can show some stability for a few days and then shoot up,” he said near the end of the briefing.

Volkswagen Delays Restarting Ventures (11:30 a.m. NY)

Volkswagen AG postponed resuming production at its China joint ventures, citing limited travel options for employees and because suppliers are still restarting after the extended national holiday at the end of January.

SAIC Volkswagen Automotive Co. postponed work by seven days until Feb. 17, except for a plant in Shanghai that will restart on schedule on Feb. 10. Most production at FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Co. will also restart on Feb. 10, one day later than announced end of January. Its plant in Tianjin will not repoen until Feb. 17.

Grab Suspends Singapore Carpooling (10:50 a.m. NY)

Grab Holdings Inc., which runs Singapore’s biggest ride-hailing app, said it will temporarily suspend its GrabShare carpooling services starting Sunday as the number of coronavirus cases in the city reached 40.

Singapore raised its national disease response level to Orange, its second-highest level and the same one used during the SARS epidemic almost two decades ago.

Singapore Cases Jump (10:20 a.m. NY)

Singapore reported seven additional confirmed cases, bringing its total to 40. Four victims are in critical condition, and one is on oxygen support, the government said late Saturday. All the new cases are Singapore citizens or permanent residents, and none had traveled to China recently.

Japanese Cruise Infections (8:30 a.m. NY)

Princess Cruises said that two people on its Diamond Princess ship parked off the coast of Japan have tested positive for the disease. The pair -- an American and a Chinese citizen -- were taken ashore for medical care.

The Diamond Princess cruise ship has become the biggest center of infections outside of China, with 64 cases as of early Saturday, up from 61 a day earlier, said Takamasa Kojima, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. No deaths have been reported. The newest cases were announced by the cruise line operator and it’s unclear whether they’re included in the total released by the health department.

Japan has supplied 16 doctors and 12 other workers to the ship to try to restrict the breakout, Princess Cruises said in an email. The ship is going to sea for 24 hours, and staff was planning to clean rooms and provide new sheets and towels. The quarantine will end Feb. 19, the boat’s operator said.

The latest case brought the number of the Japanese infected with the virus to 26, excluding those from the quarantined ship, the report said.

Five New Cases Nearly Double French Total (5 a.m. NY)

A group of Britons sharing a ski holiday in the French Alps have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. Four adults and a child have been confirmed as having the illness and 11 people have been hospitalized, French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said Saturday. The nine-year-old boy who was among the new cases had visited two local schools in the area.

The new cases started with a British national who traveled to France after a three-day stay in Singapore, arriving in the Haute Savoie region on Jan. 24 for a four-day stay, he said.

The new cases come at the start of the peak ski season, with French schools closed for their winter holiday and thousands of British families preparing to travel to the region when U.K. schools begin their winter break after Feb. 14.

Full story here.

--With assistance from Hugo Miller, Tara Patel, Linus Chua and Philip J. Heijmans.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Linly Lin in San Francisco at llin153@bloomberg.net;Lulu Yilun Chen in Hong Kong at ychen447@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann

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