China’s National Health Commission also said on Saturday that the total number of coronavirus cases has reached 37,198.  In China, 2,656 new cases were reported in the 24 hours ending at midnight Saturday. Most of them were in the central province of Hubei were the first patients fell sick in December. That was down by about 20% from the 3,399 new cases reported in the previous 24-hour period.

The virus which has been confirmed in about two dozen countries has only claimed the lives of two people outside mainland China; a Chinese man in the Philippines and a man in Hong Kong.