In its daily update, figures from the health commission in Hubei, which has been hit hardest by the virus, also showed a jump in confirmed infections with 2,103 new cases.

That puts the national total over 16,480, based on numbers previously issued by the central government.

The number of new cases now exceeds the country’s death toll from the outbreak of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which killed 349 people in mainland China.

The new virus is believed to have emerged in December from a market that sold wild game in the Hubei provincial capital Wuhan.

The epidemic has ballooned into a global health emergency, with cases reported in more than 20 countries.

The first death outside mainland China was confirmed Sunday, when a 44-year-old man from Wuhan reportedly died in the Philippines.

The G7 countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, all of which have confirmed cases of the virus – will discuss a joint response to the outbreak, Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn said later in the day.