UPDATE 1-China's Hubei province reports 132 new coronavirus deaths on Feb 18

The number of deaths in China's central Hubei province from the coronavirus outbreak rose by 132 to 1,921 as of Tuesday, the province's health commission said in a statement on its website on Wednesday.

There were a further 1,693 cases detected in Hubei, the epicentre of the outbreak, taking the total in the province to 61,682. The number of new cases on Tuesday were the lowest since Feb. 11 and the second consecutive day below 2,000.

Most of the new deaths on Tuesday were in Hubei's provincial capital of Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have originated. Wuhan reported 116 new deaths, up from 72 on Monday. A total of 1,497 people in Wuhan have now died from the virus.

New confirmed cases in Wuhan stood at 1,660, up from 1,600 on Monday. Hubei will adopt more thorough and forceful measures to find patients with fever to further help contain the new coronavirus epidemic, the state media reported on Tuesday.

The province will check records of all fever patients who have visited doctors since Jan. 20, and people who have bought over-the-counter cough and fever medications at both brick-and-mortar and online drug stores, Xinhua reported, citing a notice by the province's epidemic control headquarters.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)