There are now more new cases of the Coronavirus reported each day outside China than inside the hardest-hit country, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday. "Yesterday, the number of new cases reported outside China exceeded the number of new cases in China for the first time," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told diplomats in Geneva, according to a written version of his speech.

The UN health agency put the number of new cases in China at 411 on Tuesday and those registered outside the country stood at 427. Governments worldwide are scrambling to prevent the spread of the novel Coronavirus after a surge of infections in Italy, Iran and South Korea. Greece on Wednesday reported its first coronavirus case, a woman who had recently travelled to northern Italy, while Pakistan reported its first two cases. A 60-year-old teacher became the first French casualty of the Coronavirus, the health ministry announced on Wednesday. Brazil's health ministry on Wednesday said a Sao Paulo resident has been diagnosed with COVID-19, the first case recorded in Latin America.