The death toll due to the rapidly-spreading novel Coronavirus (2019-NCoV) outbreak in China has increased to 636, authorities said on Friday, while the number of confirmed cases climbed to 31,161.

Chinese health authorities said it received reports of 3,143 new confirmed cases of novel Coronavirus infection and 73 deaths on Thursday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

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Among the deaths, 69 were in Hubei Province, one in Jilin, one in Henan, one in Guangdong and one in Hainan, according to China’s National Health Commission.

Another 4,833 new suspected cases were reported on Thursday, said the commission.

Of the reported infections, more than 4,800 of those people were in serious condition.

Meanwhile, a Chinese doctor who was among the first to warn publicly about the new Coronavirus outbreak — and was reprimanded by authorities for his candour — died of the infection early on Friday, his hospital announced.

Li Wenliang was working as an ophthalmologist in the virus epicentre city of Wuhan when he observed patients with symptoms similar to the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2002-03.

The 34-year-old sent out a message to colleagues on December 30, but was later among eight whistleblowers summoned by police for “rumour-mongering.”

He later contracted the disease while treating a patient and has been hailed as a hero by Chinese internet users.

Wuhan Central Hospital in Hubei province, where Li worked, confirmed his death in a brief posting on its verified account on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

“Ophthalmologist Li Wenliang of our hospital, who was unfortunately infected during the fight against the pneumonia epidemic from the novel Coronavirus, died at 2:58 am on February 7, 2020, despite all-out efforts to save him.”

“We deeply regret and mourn this.”

Li’s death sparked grief and outrage on Chinese social media, where netizens hailed him as a martyr.

Chinese authorities are still struggling to contain the outbreak despite ordering millions of people indoors in a growing number of cities, with overwhelmed hospitals struggling to treat the surging numbers of ill.

The number of confirmed infections in China could still grow significantly, with the health commission saying that more than 26,000 other people were “suspected” of having contracted the virus.

The contagion emerged in the Hubei provincial capital of Wuhan in December, later spreading to the rest of China and more than two dozen other countries, prompting the World Health Organisation to declare a global emergency.

By the end of Thursday, 24 confirmed cases had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), including one death, 10 in the Macao SAR and 16 in Taiwan.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) will convene a global research and innovation forum next week to mobilize international efforts to combat the deadly novel Coronavirus outbreak, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

In what could be a serious cover-up regarding the actual death figures in the Novel Coronavirus outbreak, Chinese multinational conglomerate holding company Tencent allegedly published “real” data on the novel Coronavirus deaths, with briefly listing death toll as 24,589 — way too higher than 563 deaths China officially announced on Thursday.

Tencent, on its webpage titled “Epidemic Situation Tracker,” showed confirmed cases of novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in China as standing at 154,023 – over 10 times the official figure given to the world on February 1.

It listed the number of suspected cases as 79,808, four times the official figure.

However, once people noticed this, Tencent immediately updated the numbers to reflect the government’s “official” numbers.

If the numbers from the alleged Tencent leak are accurate, it would put Coronavirus’ mortality rate at almost 16 per cent. By comparison, SARS’ mortality rate was 9.6 per cent, CNN reported.

Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday said that prevention and control are at a critical stage and there is a need for collective action to control the spread of the virus. He also stressed on the regulation on public health emergency response by the state officials.

Besides China, the other countries where Coronavirus cases have been reported are Japan (20), Thailand (19), Singapore (18), South Korea (15), Hong Kong (15), Australia (12), Taiwan (11), the US (11), Germany (10), Malaysia (eight), Macao (eight), Vietnam (eight), France (six), UAE (five), Canada (four), Italy (two), the UK (two), India (two), Philippines (two), Russia (two), Cambodia (one), Finland (one), Nepal (one), Sri Lanka (one), Spain (one) and Sweden (one).

The Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from the common cold to acute respiratory syndromes, but the virus in China is a novel strain and not seen before.

The symptoms of infection include fever, cough and breathing problems.