The official death toll from the new coronavirus in China named COVID-19 hit 1,868 on Tuesday after another 98 people died, mostly in Hubei and Wuhan where the virus emerged in December.

Liu Zhiming, the director of Wuchang Hospital in Wuhan, became its latest victim, sparking an outpouring of grief online.

However, Chinese officials released a study showing most patients have mild cases of the illness and World Health Organization officials said the mortality rate was relatively low.

Nearly 1,900 people have now died and more than 72,000 others infected by the virus in China, with hundreds more cases in some 25 countrie

New infections have been falling in the rest of the country for the past two weeks. WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned that it was too early to tell if the decline would continue.

A study among 72,000 confirmed, suspected and clinically diagnosed cases showed that 81 percent of patients had only mild infections.

There have been some 900 cases around the world, with five deaths in France, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and Hong Kong.