South Korea, China report slowdown in new coronavirus cases

South Korea on Tuesday reported 131 new cases of the new coronavirus, which represents its lowest one-day increase of confirmed cases in two weeks.
The Korea Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said the nation’s total number of infections is now 7,513, and the total number of deaths in South Korea rose by three overnight to 54.
About 63 per cent of confirmed cases have been linked to a branch of the Shincheonji religious sect in the city of Daegu, news agency Yonhap reports.
The number of newly confirmed cases from the virus in mainland China has also been steadily dropping in recent days.
Earlier, Chinese health authorities reported 19 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 17 deaths nationwide, according to statistics released on Tuesday by the National Health Commission.
Seventeen of the new cases and all 17 new deaths were recorded in Hubei province, where the outbreak of the disease caused by the virus, Covid-19, first occurred in December last year.
At its peak, thousands of new cases and over 100 new deaths were being recorded daily in China.
In a single day in February, Hubei alone reported over 14,000 new cases and 242 deaths.
Across China, 3,136 people have died from Covid-19.
Meanwhile, the total number of deaths worldwide passed 4,000, according to a tally by the US-based Johns Hopkins University on Monday.
Out of a total of 80,754 infections, 59,897 people have so far recovered from the illness, according to the new figures.
dpa/NAN.