Mainland China reports 406 new cases of coronavirus on Feb 25, deaths up by 52

Mainland China had 406 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections on Tuesday, the country's National Health Commission (NHC) said on Wednesday, down from 508 cases a day earlier.

That brings the total number of confirmed cases in mainland China so far to 78,064.

The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China had reached 2,715 as of the end of Tuesday, up by 52 from the previous day, the commission said.

All the new deaths were in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak. Hubei also reported 401 new cases on Feb 25, down from 499 a day earlier.

Outside Hubei, the number of new mainland China cases fell to 5, down for the fifth consecutive day and the lowest since Jan 20, when the NHC began publishing nationwide figures.

Several more Chinese regions said on Wednesday that they would downgrade their emergency response measures after assessing that the risk had receded, state media reported.

As it tries to restart the economy, China has urged regions to take a more targeted approach to combating the virus, with only "high-risk" areas told to maintain stringent controls on traffic and human activity.

The World Health Organization has said the epidemic in China peaked between Jan 23 and Feb 2 and has been in decline since.