Beijing (China) | Jagran News Desk: A day after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus situation 'pandemic', China on Thursday said that the peak of the current outbreak of novel COVID-19 is over.
"Broadly speaking, the peak of the epidemic has passed for China. The increase of new cases is falling," China's National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng said, as quoted by Reuters.
The number of fresh infections at the epicentre of China's coronavirus epidemic dropped to a new low on Thursday, said NHC while adding that another 11 people died, the lowest daily increase since late January, bringing the toll in China to 3,169 deaths.
The latest report by the local health commission brought the total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the hard-hit province to 67,781.
As of Wednesday, Hubei had seen no new confirmed COVID-19 cases for seven consecutive days in its 16 cities and prefectures outside Wuhan.
There were only eight new cases in Wuhan, the city where the virus first emerged in December before growing into a national crisis and a pandemic. It is the first time that new cases in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, have fallen to single-digits since figures started to be reported in January.
This comes a day after the WHO declared the COVID-19 situation 'pandemic', saying that the organisation is concerned by the spread and lack of action taken to combat it.
"WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we're deeply concerned, both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
"We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterised as a pandemic," he added.
The deadly coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has affected more than 1,24,000 people around the world and has claimed the lives of over 4,500 people. China remains the worst-affected country with over 80,000 confirmed cases and more than 3,000 deaths.
(With agency inputs)