There have been 97 new deaths from the virus — with 91 in hardest-hit Hubei province — bringing the national toll to 908.

BEIJING: The number of confirmed infections in China’s coronavirus outbreak has reached 40,171 nationwide with more than 3,000 new cases reported, the National Health Commission said Monday.

In its daily update, the commission said there had been 97 new deaths from the virus — with 91 in hardest-hit Hubei province — bringing the national toll to 908.

Millions of people in China were returning to work Monday after an extended holiday designed to slow the spread of the new coronavirus

And although the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said there are tentative signs the epidemic is stabilising in China, the agency’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned that the number of cases recorded overseas could be just “the tip of the iceberg”.

His comments came as an advance team of WHO international experts left late Sunday for China, led by Bruce Aylward, a veteran of previous health emergencies.

In an attempt to contain the virus, cities in Hubei have been locked down and transport routes across the country cut to stop the movement of hundreds of millions of people who usually visit family during the annual Lunar New Year holiday.

The unprecedented measures included an extension of the holiday, with citizens told to stay inside as much as possible.

Officially the holiday was extended by only three days, but many cities and provinces pushed the deadline until February 10.

The measures have left businesses, shops, factories and tourist sites closed and turned many cities into ghost towns, sparking concerns about the impact of the outbreak on the economy.

But there were some signs Monday of the country beginning to make a return to normality.

Roads in Beijing and Shanghai had significantly more traffic than in recent days and the southern city of Guangzhou said it would start to resume normal public transport from Monday.

The city had been running a partial service due to the epidemic, said city authorities — who reminded people to continue avoiding crowded places.

The death toll from the novel coronavirus has overtaken global fatalities.

China drew international condemnation for covering up cases during the SARS outbreak, but the WHO has praised the measures Beijing has taken this time.

However, the health body has warned that the figures could still “shoot up”.

Ian Lipkin — a professor at Columbia University who worked with China on the SARS outbreak — also warned of the risk of a “bump” in infection cases when people return to work.

Beijing: The death toll in China due to novel coronavirus epidemic rose to 811, while the confirmed cases jumped to over 37,000, the National Health Commission announced on Sunday.

Eighty-nine deaths were reported on Saturday and there were 2,656 new confirmed cases of the deadly infection, it said in its daily report.

A total of 811 people have died of the disease so far and 37,198 confirmed cases have been reported in 31 provincial-level regions, according to the commission.

Among the 89 deaths, 81 were from Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, two in Henan, and one each in Hebei, Heilongjiang, Anhui, Shandong, Hunan and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, it said.

On Saturday, 600 people recovered and walked out of the hospitals. This included 324 in Hubei province, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. 

Nakhon Ratchasima (Thailand): The Thai soldier who killed at least 20 people and holed up in a mall overnight was shot dead on Sunday morning by commandos, ending a near-17-hour ordeal which left dozens wounded and stunned the country.

It was unclear how many people remained trapped inside the Terminal 21 mall in Nakhon Ratchasima — also known as Korat — where the gunman held out through the night, armed with assault weapons stolen from his barracks.

Volleys of gunfire rang out as the siege ran into dawn, hours after Thai security services stormed the ground floor and freed scores of stunned, terrified shoppers from a bloody rampage that the gunman — a junior army officer identified as Sergeant-Major Jakrapanth Thomma — had relayed via Facebook posts.

“He was shot dead thirty minutes ago” (0200 GMT), chief of the Crime Suppression Division Jirabhob Bhuridej told AFP.

Commandos from elite Thai police units killed the gunman, a police spokesman added, after an operation involving hundreds of security personnel.

“The official death toll is 20 and wounded 42… nine are in surgery,” Narinrat Pitchayakamin, a Korat doctor, told reporters, revising down an initial death toll of 21.

But it was unclear if there were more victims inside the multi-level complex which was packed with Saturday shoppers when the gunman stormed in.

A fleet of ambulances left the front of the complex and forensic police poured into the grim crime scene, shortly before the gunman’s death was confirmed.

The night was peppered with heavy exchanges of gunfire and sporadic evacuations. A police officer who took part in a raid to flush out the gunman died, according to deputy prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul.

“He had been hit and unfortunately, he couldn’t make it,” said Anutin.

Shocked evacuees recounted how an ordinary Saturday shopping day at the busy mall descended into horror as the gunman entered.

“It was like a dream… I’m grateful I survived,” Sottiyanee Unchalee, 48, told AFP, explaining she hid in the toilet of a gym inside the mall as she heard the gunfire. “I’m so sorry for those who died… (and) the people still trapped inside.”

Jakrapanth relayed his shooting spree through Facebook posts which charted the attack from the army barracks in the city to the mall, where an unknown number of shoppers remained trapped.

A volunteer rescue worker recounted a bloody scene of horror after his team carried four corpses to the hospital.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Peerapong Chatadee told AFP.

“I just feel so sad. He is a soldier, he should not have fired at unarmed people.”

The bloodshed began Saturday afternoon when Jakrapanth shot three people — among them at least one soldier — at a senior officer’s house and then at the nearby army barracks, before driving an army vehicle to the town centre.

There the gunman used weapons stolen from the military arsenal to unleash carnage in the town centre.

He “used a machine gun and shot innocent victims resulting in many injured and dead”, said police spokesman Krissana Pattanacharoen.

Throughout the day, Jakrapanth posted images of himself and wrote several posts on his Facebook page as the attack unfolded.

In one Facebook video — since deleted — the assailant, wearing an army helmet, filmed from an open-top jeep, saying, “I’m tired… I can’t pull my finger anymore” as he made a trigger symbol with his hand.

There were also photos of a man in a ski mask holding up a pistol.

A Facebook spokesperson said: “We have removed the gunman’s accounts from our services and will work around the clock to remove any violating content related to this attack as soon as we become aware of it.”

The city is home to one of the largest barracks in Thailand, a country where the military is enmeshed in politics and society.

The nation also has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world, and several shootings at courthouses last year renewed concern about gun violence.