The coronavirus appeared for the first time in New York, Moscow and Berlin on Monday and clusters of the disease surged around the world, even as new cases in China dropped to their lowest level in six weeks.

Hundreds of patients were released from hospitals at the epicenter of the outbreak.

Almost nine times more cases were reported outside China than inside it over the past 24 hours, according to the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.