Foreign governments have begun flying their citizens out of China's Hubei province, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, as authorities say the death toll there has topped 160.
The health commission for Hubei said on Thursday that deaths in the province from the new coronavirus had risen by 37 to 162, while a further 1032 cases had been detected, taking the total to 4586.
Although the majority of cases have been in Hubei, cases have been detected elsewhere in China and in at least 15 other countries.
The number of cases in mainland China is now more than 7000, with a death toll of 170.
The World Health Organisation's (WHO) emergency committee is set to reconvene behind closed doors in Geneva later on Thursday to decide whether the rapid spread of the virus now constitutes a global emergency.
"In the last few days the progress of the virus, especially in some countries, especially human-to-human transmission, worries us," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference on Wednesday, naming Germany, Vietnam and Japan.
"Although the numbers outside China are still relatively small, they hold the potential for a much larger outbreak."
The United States flew about 200 Americans out of Wuhan, capital of Hubei where most of the cases are concentrated. They were being screened on arrival in California. France, Britain and Canada also have organized evacuations.
The effects of the virus are already weighing heavily on China's economy, the world's second-biggest, with companies cutting corporate travel and tourists cancelling trips.
Various airlines are cutting flights, from British Airways and Lufthansa to Air Canada and American Airlines.
The situation remained "grim and complex", Chinese President Xi Jinping acknowledged. US President Donald Trump said he had spoken to Xi and his administration was working closely with China on containing the outbreak.
The WHO's panel of 16 independent experts twice last week declined to declare an international emergency, but will re-evaluate the situation on Thursday.
"We are at an important juncture in this event. We believe these chains of transmission can still be interrupted," said Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme.
Ryan also praised China's response, saying: "They are taking extraordinary measures in the face of what is an extraordinary challenge."
In many Chinese cities, streets were largely deserted. Tourist attractions were closed, while Starbucks coffee shops required people to have their temperatures taken and to wear masks.
The United States flew about 210 citizens out of Wuhan, to be screened several times on arrival in California. Britain said it would put 200 citizens on a charter plane on Thursday.
The virus is weighing heavily on the world's second-biggest economy, with companies cutting corporate travel to China and tourists cancelling trips. Various airlines are cutting flights, from British Airways and Lufthansa to Tanzania's national carrier that postponed maiden flights.
A government economist said the crisis could cut China's first quarter growth by one point to 5.0 per cent or lower as the crisis hits sectors from mining to luxury goods.
But in a potentially major step towards finding a vaccine, scientists in Australia said they had developed a lab-grown version of the virus, the first recreated outside China.
The researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity said they would share the sample, grown from an infected patient, with the WHO and global laboratories in the hope of hastening immunisation and detection.
Australian Associated Press
