China's National Health Commission

China has confirmed the first known human case of the H3N8 strain of avian flu, but health authorities say there is a low risk of widespread transmission among people.

H3N8 is known to have been circulating since 2002 after first emerging in North American waterfowl. It is known to infect horses, dogs and seals, but has not previously been detected in humans.

China reported the world's first human infection of the H10N3 bird flu strain on June 1 but said the risk of it spreading widely among people was low.

A 41-year-old man was admitted to hospital with fever symptoms in the eastern city of Zhenjiang on April 28 and was diagnosed with H10N3 a month later, China's National Health Commission (NHC) said in an online statement.

Vaccines developed by Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and the state-owned China National Biotec Group Co. have been dispensed in the country since they were granted emergency-use authorization in July.

The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in mainland China reached 82,901 as of May 9, while the total death toll from the virus stood at 4,633,

China has reported 14 new Covid-19 cases, including one from Wuhan in more than a month, where the outbreak was detected late last year. This took taking the number of infections in the country to 82,901, health officials said on Sunday.

New virus cases in China have again declined, up just 394, after authorities on Feb. 20 again changed how they count new daily infections. They are now discounting cases that had come back negative after laboratory tests.

The death toll from the new coronavirus in mainland China passed 2,000 on Feb. 19 although the number of new cases fell for a second straight day, as authorities tightened already severe containment measures in the worst-hit city of Wuhan.

A virus similar to the SARS pathogen has killed 259 people in China and spread around the world since emerging in a market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.    

On Feb. 1, China's National Health Commission said nearly 12,000 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus.    

Several countries began isolating hundreds of citizens evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan in an effort to stop the global spread of an epidemic which has killed 170, with South Korea calling for calm in the face of protests at a quarantine center.

Asian stocks and currencies fell on Jan. 30 as fatalities rose and more cases were reported around the world.

China's finance ministry and China's National Health Commission have allocated nearly $ 9 billion to fight the spread of the coronavirus, Reuters reported.

The death toll has jumped to 81 people today. The government has decided to extend the lunar New Year holidays and a number of large companies have stopped work or ordered their employees to work from home.

The death toll in China from the novel coronavirus outbreak has climbed to 56, local media reported on Jan. 26.

"During the past 24 hours, 688 new confirmed cases, 1,309 new suspected cases and 15 deaths from the disease (13 in Hubei, one in Shanghai and one in Henan) were reported," Xinhua news agency said in a report, citing China's National Health Commission.