China reported a further fall in new virus cases to 889 on Friday as health officials expressed optimism over containment of the outbreak that has caused more than 2,200 deaths and is spreading elsewhere.
Containment of the illness has been a struggle far from the epicenter in central China as a major South Korean city urged residents to stay indoors.
New infections in China have been falling for days, although changes in how it counts cases have caused doubts about the true trajectory of the epidemic.
"The downward trend will not be reversed," Ding Xiangyang, deputy chief secretary of the State Council and a member of the central government's supervision group, said on Thursday.
