China reported its lowest number of new coronavirus cases since the outbreak began as other countries struggle to contain the spread

• China reported 40 new coronavirus cases on Monday, the lowest since the government began releasing infection data, Reuters reported.
• At its peak, it was reporting as many as 4,000 new cases a day.
• China has been seeing a gradual decrease in the number of new coronavirus infections, further suggesting the country is turning a corner with the disease.
• Nonetheless, a top Chinese official said the country would neither be "blindly optimistic" nor suffer from "war-weariness" against the virus, according to Reuters.
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China reported just 40 new coronavirus cases on Monday, Reuters reported, marking the lowest increase since the country began releasing nationwide figures about the disease in January.

The figure reflects a slowing of the disease in China that has held since early March, when the number of people recovered from the virus overtook the number of people infected.

Reuters reported that 36 of the 40 new cases are in Wuhan, the city where the virus originated and where the vast majority of the world's more-than-111,000 cases have been concentrated. The other four new cases were imported from Iran, which has been hit hard by the virus.

The Chinese government began releasing official data on infections on January 20. At various points in February it reported as many as 4,000 new cases a day, not including a massive leap that took place when the method of diagnosis was broadened.

China's apparent improvement in the coronavirus fight comes as other countries continue to struggle to contain the spread. The UK recorded its largest single-day jump in cases on Monday, while people in Italy - the worst-infected country outside Asia - fled parts of the country's north after the government's plans to quarantine more than 16 million were leaked.

As of Monday evening Chinese time, the total number of infections in mainland China is now at 80,735. At least 57,000 of those cases have gone on to recover from the coronavirus, officials said Sunday.

Authorities have also closed 11 makeshift hospitals created to deal with the influx of coronavirus patients, Sixth Tone reported Monday, citing state media.

Nonetheless, the Chinese government has urged people to keep their guard up.

"We must stay cautious, not be blindly optimistic and must not have war-weariness," Chen Yixin, secretary general of the Communist Party's Politics and Law Commission said, according to Reuters.

"We should not reduce the vigilance against the epidemic and the requirements of prevention and control."

• Read more:
• China is recording so few new coronavirus infections that South Korea looks like the new center of the epidemic
• China has recorded more fully recovered coronavirus patients than people still infected, suggesting it is overcoming the epidemic
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• The US has reported 21 coronavirus deaths among over 550 cases. Here's what we know about the US patients.