Coronavirus Outbreak: 1700 new cases in China, death toll crosses 170

New Delhi : China has registered 1700 new cases of coronavirus infected people with death toll crossing 170 due to the deadly virus.

37 of the 38 new reported deaths come from the epicentre of the disease Hubei in China. Another death occurred in southwestern Sichuan province, the National Health Commission reported.

Tibet has also reported finding the first coronavirus infected human.

The 38 new deaths marked the biggest single-day jump yet and come as a massive containment effort is under way that has effectively locked down tens of millions of people in Hubei.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday issued an alert to all the nations of taking an action over the deadly SARS-like virus.

Hundreds of foreigners were evacuated from the epicentre of the outbreak on Wednesday.

The contagion has spread to more than a dozen countries, with Finland and the United Arab Emirates becoming the latest to report their first cases.

Meanwhile, most of the airlines have cancelled their flights in and out to China.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter that the organisation "deeply regrets" what he called a "human error" in WHO reports last week that referred to the global risk of the outbreak as "moderate" instead of "high".