More than 2,600 new cases were confirmed from a coronavirus outbreak in mainland China, the National Health Commission said on Saturday, a day after people returning to the capital from holidays were ordered to quarantine themselves for 14 days to try to contain its spread.
The total of confirmed infections across mainland China was now 66,492 after 2,641 new cases were confirmed as of Friday, the commission said.
The death toll rose by 143 to 1,523, it said, with most of the new deaths in central Hubei province and in particular the provincial capital of Wuhan, the city of 11 million people where the outbreak began in December.