Some 78,631 people in the Chinese mainland have tested positive for the new virus strain – which causes a disease called Covid-19 – since the outbreak began in December. The national death toll stands at 2,747 after another 29 deaths were reported on Thursday. China’s health commission said 32,804 patients had recovered.

In Japan, 912 people have tested positive for the virus and eight have died, including passengers from the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Yokohama.

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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday called for all schools to close from Monday until the end of the spring break in April. The only other country to have shut schools nationwide so far is China.

In Italy, the focus of concern in Europe, the number of confirmed cases has surged to more than 400 – jumping 25 per cent in 24 hours.

Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Centre for Health Security, said: “To me, with over two dozen countries supporting the spread of this virus, we are in the early stages of a pandemic.”

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Leading Chinese respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan said China had much to share with other countries in fighting the virus, especially measures like early detection and isolation of suspected patients.

“China’s number of new cases is already less than those in other countries. China’s practice may be helpful to them,” Zhong said at a press conference in Guangzhou on Thursday.

He said China should see what it could do to help South Korea, adding that he was willing to join regional forums to share the country’s expertise.

“After all, it’s a disease of mankind instead of one country,” he said.

“China has the most experience in the world with this disease. It is the only country that turned around a serious and large-scale outbreak,” Aylward said. “The world needs the experience and materials of China to be successful battling this coronavirus disease.”

According to Zhong, China could get the epidemic under control by late April because of the extreme intervention measures taken by the state – including mass quarantines and travel bans that curbed Lunar New Year trips.

But he admitted that the number of coronavirus patients would have been greatly reduced if China had taken action in early December, or even in early January. China only officially announced human-to-human transmission of the virus on January 20, and a delay of just a few more days could have resulted in well over 100,000 infections, Zhong said.

“There have been three coronavirus outbreaks since the beginning of the 21st century. We should take action to prevent it spreading whenever there is a coronavirus infection. This is a big lesson for us,” he said.

The epidemiologist also said that while the outbreak started in China, it may not be the origin of the deadly virus.

“When we were making forecasts, we only thought about China and not other countries. But now outbreaks are taking place in other countries,” he said. “Though the outbreaks started in China, it does not necessarily mean China was the source.”

Additional reporting by Josephine Ma and Gigi Choy