The Director-General of the World Health Organization Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the coronavirus outbreak is still an emergency for China and it is impossible to tell where the epidemic will spread.

He told the Munich Security Conference in Germany that he was encouraged by actions China had taken to slow the spread of the virus.The Chinese mainland has confirmed on Saturday more than 2000 new cases of the novel coronavirus with 142 more deaths.

Till now, total 1666 persons have died in China due to novel coronavirus and The total number of confirmed cases now stands at 68584. While over 550 cases in over two dozen countries and 3 deaths have been reported from abroad, 1 each in Japan, France and Philippines.

An elderly Chinese tourist hospitalized in France has died of the coronavirus, becoming the first fatality in Europe. Central China's Hubei Province, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, confirmed 139 more deaths and 1843 new confirmed cases, including 888 clinically confirmed, on Saturday, bringing the total number in the province to 56249.

New confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus pneumonia outside Hubei Province have been dropping for 12 consecutive days.

The United States is planning to send an aircraft to Japan to bring back Americans on the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, where the most coronavirus infections outside China have occurred.

The Japanese cruise is having total 355 onboard infections and has been quarantined for nearly two weeks now off the Yokohama coast.

Meanwhile, Chinese capital Beijing has imposed a 14-day self-quarantine on people returning to the city from holidays to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.