(Yicai Global) Jan. 22 -- The new 2019-nCoV coronavirus pneumonia that broke out in central China's Wuhan has killed nine, up by three from yesterday's toll, and all the deaths have occurred in Hubei province, of which the city is the capital, Li Bin, deputy director of the Chinese Health Commission, announced this latest intelligence at a news conference today.

The number of newly confirmed infections reported in 13 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and cities administered by the national government hit 149 as of midnight, bringing the count to 440, Li added. The health commission also noted three confirmed cases reported from Thailand, one from Japan and another from South Korea.

A total of 2,197 close contacts of the victims have been tracked, 765 of whom have been released from observation, while 1,394 are still under medical watch, Li added.

The recent surge in the number of patients correlates with a better understanding of the disease, improved diagnostic tools, and the optimization and distribution of diagnostic reagents across the country, Li noted.

The cases, which still mainly cluster in Wuhan, a transit hub home to 11 million residents, indicate human-to-human transmission, medical worker infections, and a certain degree of community transmission, Li cited an expert analysis as concluding.

The virus that is mainly transmitted via the respiratory tract may mutate and further spread. The surging mass of travelers during this week's Spring Festival transport peak -- the world's largest annual human migration in which hundreds of millions will travel -- has raised the risk of contagion and the difficulty of prevention and control, Li warned.

Coronaviruses are common viruses that cause infections of the nose, sinuses or throat. Most are not dangerous, but some are deadly. The name corona ('crown') describes their circular structure with its radiating filaments. A novel coronavirus is a new strain previously unseen in humans. Like the severe acute respiratory syndrome pandemic that erupted in China around the same time of the year in 2002 from another coronavirus and swept the world, killing  774 in 37 countries,  2019-nCoV originated in a market that sold live wild animals as food, so the current pestilence initially raised the specter of a resurgence of SARS, though Chinese health authorities say the two are different flu strains.

Editor: Ben Armour