WHO notes lower increase in virus cases

The director-general of the World Health Organisation says a drop in the number of new virus cases for two days is "good news" but cautions against reading too much into that.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke on Friday at a technical briefing to the UN health agency's executive board.

"The numbers could go up again... but the last two days were showing a declining trend," he said.

China reported 31,161 cases in mainland China in its update on Friday.

The rise of 3,143 was the lowest daily increase since at least Tuesday.

Tedros also reported that in response to his appeal earlier this week for more countries to share more patient and other information about the outbreaks in their countries, not all countries had provided the requested information.

"There are some countries who have yet to send detailed case reports to WHO," he said.

"We urge those member states to share that information immediately."