The second death has been reported outside of China, in Japan. This individual did not have known travel history to China. The death toll from a new coronavirus epidemic in China surged past 1,500 on Saturday after 143 more people died in Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak.

According to Global Times, 143 new deaths, 2,641 new confirmed cases were reported on Feb 14 in the Chinese mainland in China's National Health Commission. The total infection number soared to 66,492, with 1,523 deaths as of Feb 14.

Hubei Province reported 2420 new cases of coronavirus infections (including 1138 clinically diagnosed cases) on Feb 14, with 139 new deaths and 912 cases of recovery. The total number of infections in the province climbed to 54406, with 1457 deaths.

According to World Health Organization, In China, health care workers account for 1716 confirmed cases of COVID-19 including six deaths.

State Councillor Wang Yi, who also serves as China's foreign minister, acknowledged that the infection, now known as COVID-19, was a huge challenge, but defended Beijing's management of the epidemic and lashed out at the "overreaction" of some countries.

"Through our efforts the epidemic is overall under control," he told the Reuters News Agency on Friday.

WHO’s strategic objectives for this response are to limit human-to-human transmission including reducing secondary infections among close contacts and health care workers, preventing transmission amplification events, and preventing further international spread from China.

WHO urged to identify, isolate and care for patients early, including providing optimized care for infected patients; identify and reduce transmission from the animal source; address crucial unknowns regarding clinical severity, extent of transmission and infection, treatment options, and accelerate the development of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines; Communicate critical risk and event information to all communities and counter misinformation; Minimize social and economic impact through multi-sectoral partnerships.

This can be achieved through a combination of public health measures, such as rapid identification, diagnosis and management of the cases, identification and follow up of the contacts, infection prevention and control in health care settings, implementation of health measures for travelers, awareness-raising in the population and risk communication.