Coronavirus death toll rises by 97 people on Sunday in deadliest day yet

Over 900 people have now died from the disease, surpassing the 774 killed worldwide by SARS

The coronavirus death toll rose by 97 people on Sunday, making it the deadliest day yet for the new virus.

Since it was discovered in December, coronavirus has now killed 908 people in China.

Over the weekend, the death toll eclipsed the 774 killed worldwide by SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, before it was mostly contained in 2003.

In mainland China, 3,062 new coronavirus infections were confirmed by the country's National Health Commission (NHC) on Sunday. This brings the total number of infections in China up to 40,171.

In the same statement, the NHC added that 187,518 people are currently under medical observation and 3,821 patients have been cured and discharged from hospital.

Meanwhile, more than 60 people on a quarantined cruise ship in Japan have tested positive for the disease, increasing the total number of infections on-board to 130.

And in the UK, authorities said the virus posed a “serious and imminent threat to public health,” after a British businessman caught the virus in Singapore. He is believed to have passed it on to at least seven other people in Europe.

On Sunday evening, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, warned that the world may just be seeing “the tip of the iceberg.”

He wrote on his Twitter account: “There’ve been some concerning instances of onward #2019nCoV spread from people with no travel history to China.

“The detection of a small number of cases may indicate more widespread transmission in other countries; in short, we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg,” he added.

The WHO declared the virus a global emergency on 30 January.