BEIJING: China reported 30 more deaths from the COVID-19 outbreak on Friday (Mar 6), with fresh infections rising for a second straight day and 16 new cases imported from overseas.

In total 3,042 people have died from the disease in China, the National Health Commission said.



More than 80,500 people have now been infected in mainland China, which has imposed a series of dramatic measures to try and contain the spread of infections beyond the epicentre, central Hubei province.

The country reported 143 cases on Friday, up from 139 cases the previous day.

China still accounts for the majority of cases and deaths, but infections are now rising faster abroad, with South Korea, Iran and Italy emerging as major hotspots.



As the virus spreads overseas, there have been a growing number of cases imported into China by travellers from abroad.

Authorities in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong have all vowed to quarantine travellers from countries hit the hardest by the coronavirus, which Beijing identified as South Korea, Japan, Iran and Italy.

There have now been 36 cases brought into China in total, the commission said Friday, 16 more than in the previous day.

The number of cases reported outside Hubei was the highest in over a week with 17 cases. Hubei, excluding the provincial capital Wuhan, reported zero new cases of coronavirus over 24 hours for the first time during the outbreak

Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic, reported 126 new confirmed cases on Thursday but there were no new infections in the province apart from those, the National Health Commission said on Friday.

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