The number of people infected with the new coronavirus in China passed 70,000 on Monday as international experts began meetings with their Chinese counterparts on how to tackle an epidemic that has caused global concern.
The death toll jumped to 1,765 in mainland China after 100 more people died in Hubei province, where the virus first emerged in December before spreading across the country and overseas.
Worries about its spread remain high and the epidemic's reach was highlighted by the US announcing that more than three dozen Americans from a cruise ship quarantined off Japan were infected.
The number of new cases of the COVID-19 strain spiked last week when officials in Hubei changed their criteria for counting cases to include people diagnosed through lung imaging.
The number of new cases in the province on Monday was around 100 higher than those on Sunday but still sharply down from those reported on Friday and Saturday.
Hubei announced tough new measures to try to curb the epidemic on Sunday, ordering its cities to block roads to all private vehicles and telling villages and urban residential districts to strictly control the movement of people.
Global experts begin meetings in China
International experts have begun meeting with their counterparts in China over the new coronavirus epidemic, whose future path is "impossible" to predict, the World Health Organization said.
The number of new cases from China's coronavirus epidemic dropped for a third consecutive day, but global concern remains high about its spread, emphasized by a US announcement that more than three dozen Americans from a cruise ship quarantined off Japan are infected.
"International experts participating in the @WHO-led joint mission with (China) have arrived in Beijing & have had their first meeting with Chinese counterparts today," World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter.
"We look forward to this vitally important collaboration contributing to global knowledge about the #COVID19 outbreak."
On a visit to Pakistan, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed confidence that the "gigantic effort" by China "will allow for the progressive reduction of the disease."
But Dr Tedros warned it was "impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take."
"We ask all governments, companies and news organisations to work with us to sound the appropriate level of alarm without fanning the flames of hysteria," he said at the Munich Security Conference.
The UN health body has asked China for more details on how diagnoses are being made.
