South Korea, once the largest coronavirus outbreak outside China, has seen its newly recovered patients exceed fresh infections for the first time on Friday, as it reported its lowest number of new cases for three weeks.

However, the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has jumped in the last 24 hours by 189 to 1,016, a rise of 23 percent, the country’s Civil Protection Agency said on Thursday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a pandemic as Italy tightened its strict quarantine and the United States imposed a ban on flights to Europe.

More than 4,700 people have died and over 128,000 have been infected globally, according to the WHO. About 68,000 victims have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the virus.

The escalating coronavirus emergency has sent stocks crashing to their worst losses in 30 years.

Source: Al Jazeera