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The death toll from the new coronavirus originating in China has increased to nine, and the number of cases of confirmed infections to 440, the National Health Commission of the Asian country reported on Wednesday.

The vice minister of the National Health Commission of China, Li Bin, said in a press conference in Beijing that, at 12.00 local time, 13 provinces had confirmed a total of 440 cases of infection, and the number of deaths was nine people, all of them in the province of Hubei.

This means three dead and 149 infected more than in the previous report, published on Tuesday.

The central-eastern city of Wuhan, with 11 million inhabitants, is the epicenter of the outbreak of a new type of coronavirus (2019-nCov) that causes what is already known as "Wuhan pneumonia" and that, authorities said on Monday Chinese toilets, it is also spread by contact between humans.

Li expressed concern about the possible contagions that may occur throughout the Chinese New Year, whose holidays officially begin this Friday and that constitute the largest human migration on the planet, with tens of millions of Chinese returning to their home towns. That is why he requested that "public contact be minimized."

However, Li said that the response of health services to the disease has managed to "keep the number of cases and deaths to minimum levels." "We are sure that we are going to defeat the disease," the official concluded.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has convened an expert meeting on Wednesday to determine whether the current outbreak of coronavirus in China is an international emergency.

Globally, cases have been confirmed in Thailand (3), Japan, South Korea and the United States, these last three countries with one.

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