China reports another 97 virus deaths, nearly 650 new cases

China’s death toll from the coronavirus epidemic rose to 2,442 on Sunday after the government said 97 more people had died, all but one of them in the epicentre of Hubei province.

The National Health Commission also confirmed another 648 new cases in China.

The vast majority of both deaths and new infections were in the hard-hit Hubei provincial capital of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December.

China’s total infections reached 76,936, the commission said in its daily update.

The coronavirus has spread to more than 25 countries and is causing mounting alarm due to new pockets of outbreak in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

China’s numbers of daily new infections are well down from the outbreak’s early height.

But China has sowed confusion about the data by repeatedly changing its counting methods.

Meanwhile, South Korea reported 123 more coronavirus cases Sunday, taking the nationwide total to 556, as well as two additional deaths which brings the toll to four.

The fourth death was a man at a hospital in Cheongdo, a southern city connected to a religious sect, where around 100 cases were reported.

Among the latest cases, 75 were connected to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the southern city of Daegu, the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.

Hundreds of members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus have now been infected, starting with a 61-year-old woman who developed a fever on February 10 but attended at least four church services in Daegu before being diagnosed.

Daegu — which is South Korea’s fourth largest city with a population of 2.5 million and Cheongdo — the birthplace of Shincheonji’s founder Lee Man-hee — were designated as “special care zones” on Friday.