China on Wednesday claimed a drop in the number of new suspected cases of coronavirus in the last two days, raising hopes that its strong measures may help to contain the outbreak, even as the death toll rose to nearly 500.
As the death toll rose, Hong Kong announced on Wednesday a mandatory two-week quarantine for all travellers from mainland China to stop more cases of the deadly new coronavirus.
The death toll in China's coronavirus outbreak rose to 491 on Tuesday while the total number of confirmed cases mounted to 24,324, Chinese health officials announced on Wednesday.
The virus cases abroad have climbed to 182. The Philippines reported first death abroad while Hong Kong announced its first casualty on Sunday.
China, which is waging a grim battle against the outbreak, received its first foreign dignitary, the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
A staunch of ally of Beijing, Hun Sen under whose prolonged regime received billions of Chinese investments was received at the airport by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and later he met President Xi Jinping.
Ahead of his arrival, Hun Sen made headlines by offering to visit the coronavirus epicentre Wuhan to show solidarity to China's efforts to fight the outbreak.
Like Pakistan, the other staunch ally of China, Cambodia also declined to evacuate its diplomats and students from the country like many other countries, showing solidarity with Beijing. Hun Sen refused to cancel flight services while all the major airlines have halted services to China over virus fears.
While appreciating Hua Sen's solidarity, China however said he would not be travelling to Wuhan.
"Hun Sen speaks highly of China's efforts against the epidemic and firmly believes that China will overcome current difficulties at an early date," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said during an online media briefing here.
Several countries have evacuated their nationals from Wuhan.
India has evacuated 647 Indian students and seven Maldivians from Wuhan. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh which are also recipients of large scale Chinese investments too have evacuated their citizens.
Pakistan which has several hundred students stranded in the Wuhan and Hubei province has declined to heed to their desperate pleas for evacuation, saying that China has promised to take care of them.
Hua also said the suspected cases of coronavirus for the first time started dropping in the last two days, raising hopes that China may be succeeding in its battle to contain the virus.
"The number of new suspected cases dropped for a second day in a row," she said.
China's national health commission said it received reports of 3,971 new suspected cases on Tuesday on the Chinese mainland, compared with 5,072 cases reported on Monday and 5,173 on Sunday, showing a trend of decline.
Chinese officials say the cases will come down with more specialised hospitals being set up in Wuhan.
China has intensifies the testing process of the novel coronavirus infection in Hubei Province, experts said on Wednesday.
For confirmed cases, the patients can get better treatment in a shorter period of time, and for excluded cases, they can go back to their normal life, she added.
China's Ministry of Science and Technology said that a batch of Remdesivir, an antiviral drug, which will be put into clinical trials to test its efficiency on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), is expected to arrive in China soon.
Remdesivir has been used to treat Ebola infections abroad, a media report said.
So far there is no set treatment to cure the coronavirus cases.
Meanwhile, two new born babies in Wuhan were diagnosed with novel coronavirus infection, suggesting possible mother-to-foetus transmission.
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