BEIJING: China had 1,109 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections on Thursday (Feb 20), the National Health Commission said on Friday, up from 394 cases a day earlier.

That brings the total accumulated number of confirmed cases in mainland China so far to 75,685.



The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China reached 2,236 as of the end of Thursday, up by 118 from the previous day.

The central province of Hubei, the epicentre of the outbreak, reported 115 new deaths, while in the provincial capital of Wuhan, 99 people died.



READ: China changes method of counting COVID-19 patients again



It also reported 631 new cases, including 220 in the province's prison system.



Chinese officials say the declining rate of new infections shows they are succeeding in keeping the virus contained to Hubei, with severe restrictions on travel and movement imposed at great cost to the world's second-biggest economy.



The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that while the drop in new coronavirus cases in China is encouraging, infections outside the country could still spread.

"We are encouraged by this trend but this is no time for complacency," the WHO's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told a briefing in Geneva.

To date, 25 other countries have reported 1,076 cases to WHO, including five in the latest affected, Iran, he said.



Tedros noted that the total was very low compared to nearly 75,000 inside China, but added: "That may not stay the same for long."

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