The overall death toll in mainland China due to the deadly coronavirus increased to 2,442 on Sunday, while the number of confirmed cases reached 76,936, according to health authorities.

The National Health Commission said that it received reports of 648 new confirmed cases and 97 deaths on Saturday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps reports Xinhua news agency.

Among the deaths, 96 were reported in Hubei province and one in Guangdong.

Another 882 new suspected cases were reported on Saturday, the Commission said.

According to the governor of Markazi province Ali Aghazadeh, the sixth victim died on Saturday in the central city of Arak and had also suffered heart disease, the media report said.

Earlier in the day, Kianush Jahanpur, head of Public Relations and Information Center of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, announced that 28 Iranians have been confirmed as infected by the virus.

As of Sunday morning, the number of confirmed cases outside China were reported in Japan (751), South Korea (556), Singapore (89), Hong Kong (70), Italy (51), Thailand (35), the US (35), Iran (28), Taiwan (26), Australia (23), Malaysia (22), Germany (16), Vietnam (16), France (12), the UAE (11), Macau (10), the UK (nine), Canada (nine), India (three), the Philippines (three), Russia (two), Spain (two), Israel (one), Egypt (one), Lebanon (one), Cambodia (one), Finland (one), Nepal (one), Sri Lanka (one), Sweden (one) and Belgium (one), according to figures published by the South China Morning Post.

Earlier on Thursday, 45 Ukrainians and 27 foreign nationals were flown from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the deadly outbreak, to Kharkiv, BBC reported.

Ukraine’s security service (SBU) said a fake email claiming to be from the health ministry falsely said some evacuees had contracted the virus, the statement added.

Ukraine has no confirmed cases of the coronavirus and the Health Ministry said that none of the evacuees was sick.

Hong Kong has confirmed the virus in 62 patients, two of whom have died. The first infections were largely found within people who had travelled to the epicentre in China’s central Hubei province.

Thailand, which has imposed no such restrictions, reported a 90 per cent slump in arrivals from the mainland this month, a gut punch to an already beleaguered tourist sector which makes up nearly a fifth of the economy.

In 2003, 299 Hong Kongers were killed by an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) — 40 per cent of the global total fatalities.

Hubei Province, a centre of the novel coronavirus outbreak, reported 411 new confirmed cases and 115 new deaths on Thursday, according to the provincial health commission on Friday.

Authorities have placed about 56 million people in hard-hit central Hubei under an unprecedented lockdown. Other cities far from the epicentre have restricted the movements of residents, while Beijing ordered people arriving in the capital to undergo a 14-day self-quarantine.

The novel Coronavirus outbreak has caused alarm as it has crossed global fatalities in the 2002-03 SARS epidemic.

(With inputs from agency)