All of the new deaths were in central Hubei province, the epicentre of the virus outbreak. China said it would welcome assistance from the United States to fight the  outbreak.  The White House said China had accepted its offer to have US experts join a WHO mission to study and help combat the virus, which emerged from a market in Hubei's provincial capital of Wuhan late last year.

A WHO spokesman said on Monday that the WHO-led international team of experts could go to China as early as this week to investigate the outbreak.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on all countries to prepare to cope with the spreading of epidemics and prevent chaos in disease prevention. The WHO called on countries to share data, information and experience in coping with the epidemics. Hong Kong on Tuesday announced its first death from the new coronavirus.