China reports fall in Covid-19 cases but concerns grow over rising global spread

A woman wearing a face mask as she waits to cross a mostly empty intersection in Beijing, on Saturday (Feb 22). South Korea has reported an eight-fold jump in viral infections in four days to 433, most of them linked to a church and a hospital in and around the country's fourth-largest city, where health workers scrambled to screen thousands of worshipers. - AP

BEIJING: China has confirmed a sharp decrease in new deaths and cases of the coronavirus on Saturday (Feb 22) but a doubling of infections in South Korea and 10 new cases in Iran added to unease about its rapid spread and global reach.

Mainland China had 397 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections on Friday, down from 889 a day earlier, but only 31 cases were outside of the virus epicentre of Hubei province, the lowest number since the National Health Commission started compiling nationwide data a month ago.