China and South Korea appear to be turning the corner in their fight against the spread of the deadly Coronavirus outbreak.
China reported 40 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, its lowest number since its health commission began publishing nationwide data on 20 January.
Of the 40 cases, 36 were from the virus epicentre of Wuhan – while the remaining four were cases imported from Iran.
But one Chinese official warned that the country had to “stay cautious” – adding that the country “should not reduce the vigilance against the epidemic”.
The same downward trend has continued in South Korea – whichreported 69 new cases, its lowest daily increase in 10 days.
This brings the number of cases in South Korea to 7,382.
The country’s Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun expressed optimism, but warned that the country must remain “extremely cautious”.
“There’s hope we can reach a turning point in the near future,” he said.
However, in the US the number of confirmed coronavirus cases has risen past 500, as the virus continues to spread across the country.
At least 21 people have died.
President Donald Trump earlier signed an $8.3bn emergency bill designed to combat the outbreak. He had urged calm, saying: “It’ll go away.”
The death toll in Italy has jumped by 133 in just one day, making a total of 366 deaths in the country.
The total number of infections also spiked by 25% to 7,375 from 5,883.
This means Italy now has the highest number of confirmed infections outside China, where the virus emerged last December
