CORONAVIRUS | Mainland China had 406 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections yesterday, the country’s National Health Commission (NHC) said today, down from 508 cases a day earlier.

That brings the total number of confirmed cases in mainland China so far to 78,064.

The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China had reached 2,715 as of the end of Tuesday, up by 52 from the previous day, the commission said.

All the new deaths were in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak. Hubei also reported 401 new cases on Feb 25, down from 499 a day earlier.

Outside Hubei, the number of new mainland China cases fell to five, down for the fifth consecutive day and the lowest since Jan 20, when the NHC began publishing nationwide figures.

Several more Chinese regions said today that they would downgrade their emergency response measures after assessing that the risk had receded, state media reported.

As it tries to restart the economy, China has urged regions to take a more targeted approach to combat the virus, with only “high-risk” areas told to maintain stringent controls on traffic and human activity.

The World Health Organisation has said the epidemic in China peaked between Jan 23 and Feb 2 and has been in decline since.

The total number of deaths globally stands at 2763, including 16 deaths in Iran and 11 deaths in South Korea.

- Reuters