China's coronavirus centre of Wuhan sees single-digit new cases for second day

China's Wuhan city, ground zero of the new coronavirus outbreak, reported five new cases on Friday, the second day in a row the tally has been less than 10, while no locally transmitted infections were reported in the rest of the country.

Wuhan, capital of central Hubei province, recorded the five new confirmed cases on Thursday, the National Health Commission said, down from eight cases the previous day. The commission said on Thursday China's coronavirus epidemic had passed its peak, even as alarm over the virus intensified elsewhere with global markets suffering record falls and governments unveiling measures to try to slow the spread of a disease that has infected more than 127,000 people worldwide.

As China's new infections have tailed off, its concern has turned to imported cases. Shanghai reported two new cases, while Beijing saw one, all imported by people travelling to China from affected areas abroad, the health authority said.

Those cases brought the total number of new infections in mainland China to eight on Thursday, down from 15 the previous day, and the lowest since the healthy authority started publishing nationwide figures in January. To date, the total accumulated number of cases in mainland China is 80,813.

The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China reached 3,176 as of the end of Thursday, up by seven from the previous day. In Hubei province, there were six new deaths, with Wuhan accounting for all of them.