Chinese health authorities on Wednesday said the death toll due to the novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak in the country has increased to 132, with 5,974 confirmed cases in 31 provincial-level regions.

The National Health Commission said that 1,239 patients remained in critical conditions, and 9,239 people were suspected of being infected with the virus as of Tuesday.

A total of 103 people were discharged from hospital after recovery.

Tuesday saw 1,459 new confirmed cases, 3,248 new suspected cases, including one in Tibet Autonomous Region, and 26 deaths — 25 in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak) and one in Henan.

Till now, Tibet was the only province in China that had not registered any cases.

A total of 65,537 close contacts have been traced, the Commission said, adding that among them, 1,604 were discharged on Tuesday, with 59,990 others still under medical observation.

Amid fears, the government has delayed restart of schools, universities. China had earlier announced the extension of the Spring Festival holiday until February 2, amid its efforts to curb the spread of the novel Coronavirus.

Meanwhile, eight confirmed cases were reported in Hong Kong, seven in Macao Special Administrative Region and eight in Taiwan.

Other countries with confirmed cases outside of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau include Thailand, Australia, Singapore, the US, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, France, Vietnam, Canada, Ivory Coast, Nepal, Germany, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, UAE and Pakistan.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Wednesday confirmed the first case of the deadly novel Coronavirus in the country.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) said the case was detected in a member of a family who arrived in the UAE from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.

Four Pakistani students studying in the Chinese city of Wuhan have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Addressing a press conference, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Zafar Mirza said that a large proportion of the Pakistanis living in China were students of which over 500 were based in Wuhan. However, no case of the Coronavirus has been confirmed in Pakistan yet.

Meanwhile, the first Japanese government charter flight with 206 of its nationals arrived Wednesday in Tokyo from Wuhan, as part of an operation to evacuate around 650 citizens.

A US plane carrying diplomatic personnel and other citizens departed Wuhan on Tuesday, a State Department spokesman told Efe news.

In a “significant breakthrough”, scientists in Australia announced on Wednesday that they have managed to reproduce the virus in cell culture for the first time outside of China.

Researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute (PDI) in Melbourne, grew the virus from a patient sample, they said in a statement, adding it will assist in the assessment of effectiveness of trial vaccines as well as allowing accurate investigation and diagnosis of the virus globally.

The Coronavirus has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

The Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from the common cold to acute respiratory syndromes, but the virus in China is a novel strain and not seen before.

The symptoms of infection include fever, cough and breathing problems.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO), which is yet to declare the novel Coronavirus as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) despite over 100 fatalities in China, identified the disease as “high risk”.

On January 23, an Emergency Committee set up by the WHO over the virus which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, had stopped short of declaring the novel Coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern – a rare designation used only for the worst outbreaks that would trigger more concerted global action.

The Geneva-based UN agency, however, on Monday admitted an error in its risk assessment of China’s deadly virus.

WHO has announced that it will send a team of international experts to China as soon as possible to assess the novel coronavirus outbreak situation and guide the global counter-epidemic efforts.