RUSTENBURG - The number of coronavirus cases continue to decline in China, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.
"Yesterday, China reported 206 cases of Covid-19 to WHO, the lowest since 22 January. Only eight cases were reported outside Hubei province yesterday.
"Outside China, a total of 8,739 cases of Covid-19 have been reported to WHO from 61 countries, with 127 deaths," WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in Geneva, Switzerland.
He said there were almost nine times more cases reported outside China than inside China in the past 24 hours.
"The epidemics in the Republic of Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan are our greatest concern. I would also like to inform you that a WHO team arrived in Iran this afternoon to deliver supplies and support the government in the response," he said.
"The Republic of Korea has now reported more than 4,200 cases and 22 deaths, meaning it has more than half of all cases outside China... The cases in the Republic of Korea appear to be coming mostly from suspected cases from the five known clusters, rather than the community.
"That’s important because it indicates that surveillance measures are working and Korea’s epidemic can still be contained."
He said of the 88,913 cases reported globally so far, 90 percent were in China, mostly in one province. Of the 8,739 cases reported outside China, 81 percent were from four countries.
"Of the other 57 affected countries, 38 have reported 10 cases or less, 19 have reported only one case, and a good number of countries have already contained the virus and have not reported in the last two weeks."