South Korea struggled to find enough hospital beds for sick patients, Iran and Italy grappled with rising deaths, and Saudi Arabia banned citizens from performing the pilgrimage to Mecca as the coronavirus that tormented China acquired firm footing elsewhere in the world.
As the number of new cases drops precipitously in China, attention has shifted to South Korea, Italy and Iran, countries with major coronavirus clusters that the World Health Organisation says account for 80 per cent of new cases outside China.
"People are afraid and uncertain. Fear is a natural human response to any threat. But as we get more data, we are understanding this virus and the disease it causes more and more," said WHO's leader Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
WHO said about 3.4 per cent of people infected with the virus COVID-19 globally have died, making it more fatal than the common flu.
Death rates in outbreaks are likely to skew higher early on as health officials focus on finding severe and fatal cases, missing most milder cases. WHO says the majority of people with the new coronavirus experience only mild symptoms and do not require any treatment.
In Daegu, the South Korean city at the centre of that country's outbreak, a shortage of hospital space meant about 2,300 patients were being cared for in other facilities while they awaited a hospital bed.
Attending a meeting on quarantine strategies in Daegu, Prime Minister Chung Se-Kyun assured his country, saying, "We can absolutely overcome this situation... We will win the war against COVID-19."