China reports three deaths, 54 new confirmed cases of coronavirus

China has reported 54 new imported coronavirus cases, taking their tally in the last few days to 649, while the death toll in the country has risen to 3,295 with three more fatalities confirmed on Friday, China's National Health Commission said on Saturday.

While no new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 were reported on Friday, the number of coronavirus infections in people returning from abroad has gone up to 649 with 54 new cases reported, it said.

A total of three deaths and 29 new suspected cases were reported in the Chinese mainland on Friday.

All the deaths were reported in the COVID-19 epicentre Hubei Province and its capital Wuhan, which are now being gradually opened up after kept under lockdown since January 23.

The overall confirmed cases in the mainland reached 81,394 by the end of Friday. This included 3,295 people who died due to the disease, 3,128 patients and 74,971 patients discharged after recovery, the National Health Commission said.

The commission said that 184 people were still suspected of being infected with the virus.

By the end of Friday, 518 confirmed cases, including four deaths, had been reported in Hong Kong, 34 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 267 in Taiwan including two deaths.

The novel coronavirus, that first originated in wuhan in December, has wreaked havoc across the globe, upending life and businesses.

According to Johns Hopkins University data, 27,333 people have died due to the disease across over 170 coutries. Italy has the highest number of deaths at 9,134, followed by Spain 5,138 and China 3,174.

The United States leads in the number of COVID-19 with 104,007 infections confirmed so far, followed by Italy (86,498) and China (81,906).