The death toll from the novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak in China has risen to 425 with 64 new fatalities — a single-day high — being reported in the hard-hit Hubei province.

China’s National Health Commission said that the overall number of confirmed cases in the Asian giant was 20,438.

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It received reports of 3,235 new confirmed cases and 64 deaths on Monday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

All of the deaths were in Hubei province, whose capital Wuhan is the epicentre of the outbreak.

Also on Monday, 492 patients became seriously ill, while 2,788 patients remained in severe condition, and a total of 23,214 people were suspected of being infected with the virus.

A total of 632 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery.

The commission said 221,015 close contacts had been traced, adding that among them, 12,755 were discharged on Monday, with 171,329 were others still under medical observation.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong on Tuesday became the second place outside mainland China to report the death of a Coronavirus patient as restrictions on movement were imposed on two more cities far from the epicentre, including the home of Alibaba.

The Hong Kong victim, a 39-year-old man, died on Tuesday morning the Princess Margaret Hospital where he was in isolation after he was confirmed as the city’s 13th Coronavirus case on January 31.

The victim had travelled from Hong Kong to the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak which has killed 425 in China, on January 21 and returned home on January 23.

He sought treatment on January 31 after having myalgia (muscle pain) and fever.

His 72-year-old mother was confirmed on Sunday as Hong Kong’s 15th case of novel Coronavirus infection and has been transferred to Princess Margaret Hospital for treatment.

Hong Kong has been particularly on edge over the virus as it has revived memories of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2002-03, which killed nearly 300 people in the financial hub and 349 people in the mainland.

On Sunday the Philippines reported the death of a Chinese man who had come from Wuhan, the central city at the epicentre of China’s health emergency.

The new death toll in China has exceeded the 349 mainland fatalities from the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak in more than two dozen countries.

However, with more than 20,400 confirmed infections, the mortality rate of the new virus is about 2.1 per cent — much lower than that of SARS at around 9.6 per cent — suggesting that it was not as deadly.

The disease is believed to have emerged in a market in Wuhan that sold wild animals, spreading rapidly as people travelled for the Lunar New Year holiday in late January.

Meanwhile, China’s Politburo Standing Committee on Monday admitted “shortcomings and deficiencies” in the country’s response to the deadly outbreak.

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).

Meanwhile, a WHO-led international team of experts is reportedly set to go to China as early as this week to investigate the deadly Coronavirus outbreak, as agreed between the world body chief and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The team may also include US experts, a WHO spokesman said on Monday.

In the wake of rapidly increasing cases of the deadly virus across the world, the World Health Organisation last month declared the novel Coronavirus outbreak as a global health emergency.

This is the sixth time the WHO has declared a public health emergency of international concern after it did so during the outbreaks of H1N1 in 2009; the Ebola virus in West Africa in 2014 and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2019; polio in 2014; and the Zika virus in 2016.