The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday it was too early to say that China’s coronavirus outbreak was peaking, but noted that the country had recorded its first day of a drop in the number of new infections.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media that the death toll from the virus in mainland China jumped by 73 to 563, with more than 28,000 confirmed infections inside the world’s second-largest economy. That number had risen by nearly 4,000 from Wednesday to Thursday.

Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergency expert, said it was very difficult to make predictions on the course of the disease first reported in the central city of Wuhan in late December, noting: “We are still in the middle of an intense outbreak”.