US President Donald Trump has backed away from imposing a quarantine in the New York area, instead directing a "strong Travel Advisory" be issued to limit the spread of the new coronavirus.

The announcement on Twitter came late on Saturday as criticism grew over Trump's call to prohibit travel in and out of virus hotspots in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The Death toll from COVID-19 around the world reached 30,475 on Sunday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. Some 139,000 people have recovered.

The total number of global confirmed cases surpassed 659,300, with the U.S. reporting the most cases at 121,117. The death toll in the country surged past 2,000, more than double the figure from two days ago.

In Spain, the number of deaths from COVID-19, the illness caused by the new virus, rose to 5,690, and in hard-hit Italy, the death toll jumped above 10,000.

Source: Based on reporting from Aljazeera and CGTN