THE number of confirmed infections in China’s coronavirus outbreak has reached 37,198 nationwide, with more than 2,600 new cases reported, said the National Health Commission today.

In its daily update, the commission said there have been 89 new deaths from the virus – 81 of them in the hardest-hit Hubei province – bringing the national toll to 811.

The virus was first detected in Hubei’s capital, Wuhan, last December.

The death toll is now higher than the global number of fatalities caused by the SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, virus, which killed 774 people in 2002-03.

Yesterday, the World Health Organisation said the number of cases being reported daily in China is “stabilising” – but cautioned that it is too early to say if the virus has peaked.

The only confirmed deaths outside the mainland are a Chinese man in the Philippines and a 39-year-old male patient in Hong Kong. – AFP, February 9, 2020.