South Korea has declared its highest disease alert level as it reported more than 160 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total there to 602.

A sixth person has died in the country from COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, according to the Korea Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention (KCDC).

President Moon Jae-in said the COVID-19 outbreak has reached a "crucial watershed" and the "next few days will be a very important critical moment".

In Japan, a third passenger from the coronavirus-infected Diamond Princess cruise ship has died.

The Japanese man, who was aged in his 80s, lost his life just days after a couple also in their 80s passed away.


Dozens of British passengers isolated on the ship for about a fortnight were flown home to the UK on Saturday and are now in quarantine as a precaution.

More than 300 confirmed cases of infection in South Korea are linked to a church in the southeastern city of Daegu after a 61-year-old woman known as "Patient 31" who attended services there tested positive for the virus last week. She had no recent record of overseas travel.

Seventeen South Korean Catholics in North Gyeongsang Province and their tour guide in Seoul who had gone on a pilgrimage to Israel earlier this month were confirmed to have the virus, KCDC said.

The escalation in the alert level allows the government to send extra resources to Daegu city and Cheongdo county, which were designated "special care zones" on Friday. Officials have warned people to avoid non-essential trips there.

Hundreds of couples wearing facemasks tied the knot at a mass wedding in the Philippines amid the threat of the COVID-19 disease.

On Friday, the confirmation of 100 cases had prompted the declaration of a health emergency in Daegu, South Korea's fourth-largest city.

At least 78,823 people worldwide have been infected with the virus, almost 77,000 of them in China, where it originated in December.

More than 2,460 people have died, according to figures recorded by Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science.

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In Iran, two people have died from coronavirus, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to eight - the highest death toll outside China. Another 43 are infected.

Meanwhile, in Italy three top-flight football matches have been postponed after the deaths of two people from coronavirus in just 24 hours.

The Italian government ordered the Serie A matches between Inter Milan v Sampdoria, Atalanta v Sassuolo and Hellas Verona v Cagliari be cancelled.

They had been scheduled for Sunday in the northern Italian regions of Lombardy and Veneto, the two areas where Italy's coronavirus cases have been recorded.

Image: Four people have died from coronavirus in Italy

The number of cases in Lombardy has risen to 89, bringing the total number of cases in Italy to more than 100. Schools, restaurants and businesses have been closed in both Lombardy and Veneto.

The first fatality was a former construction company owner aged in his late 70s, who died in Padua, in the Veneto region, where he had been admitted along with another person who has tested positive for COVID-19.

A second patient - a woman - died hours later in Lombardy.