International concern about the spread of coronavirus outside China has grown with sharp rises in infections in South Korea, Italy and Iran.
South Korea went on high alert on Sunday (local time) after the number of infections surged over 600, with six deaths.
Italy had a rise to 132 cases and imposed stringent curbs in parts of the country to try to stop the spread. Iran has reported 43 cases, with eight deaths.
In China, which has seen the vast majority of cases, authorities reported 648 new infections on Saturday - higher than a day earlier.
However only 18 were outside of Hubei province, the lowest number outside the epicentre since authorities began publishing data a month ago and locked down large parts of the country.
President Xi Jinping said that while measures to deal with the virus had been effective, the battle to contain it was still at a crucial stage.
South Korea's president said the government had raised the disease alert to the highest level, allowing authorities to send extra resources to Daegu city and Cheongdo county, which were designated "special care zones" on Friday.
Health officials reported 169 new infections, bringing the total to 602, having doubled from Friday to Saturday.
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More than half the new cases are linked to a church in the southeastern city of Daegu after a 61-year-old woman who attended services there tested positive for the virus last week. The woman had no recent record of overseas travel.
Concern about the reach and rapid spread of the coronavirus also grew in Europe and the Middle East.
In Italy, schools and universities were closed and some soccer matches postponed in the affected northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto, the country's industrial heartland.
Almost a dozen towns in Lombardy and Veneto with a combined population of some 50,000 have effectively been placed under quarantine, with locals urged to stay home and special permission needed to enter or leave the designated areas.
Iran reported a total of 43 infections, with eight deaths - all since Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and Turkey imposed travel and immigration restrictions on Iran, while Oman on Sunday urged its citizens to steer clear of countries with high infection rates and said arrivals from those nations would be quarantined.
The WHO says the virus is severe or critical in only a fifth of infected patients, and mild in the rest, but the potential economic impact of the disease was prominent at a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Riyadh.
In Japan, where the government is facing growing questions about whether it is doing enough to counter the virus, authorities had confirmed 773 cases by early Sunday evening, most of them from a cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed government agencies to urgently prepare medical provisions and draft a comprehensive plan to curb the spread.
A third passenger from the virus-infected Diamond Princess cruise ship, a Japanese man in his 80s, died on Sunday, authorities said.
