China says new coronavirus cases drop to 409 on Feb 23 but deaths jump to 150

Resident wearing a face mask and a plastic cap walks past closed stores at a residential area in Wuhan

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Mainland China had 409 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Sunday, the National Health Commission said on Monday, down from 648 reported a day earlier.

The number of new deaths, however, rose to 150 from 97 over the same period, it said in a statement.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases on the mainland is now 77,150, and 2,592 have died from the outbreak, the commission said.

(Reporting by Engen Tham, Lusha Zhang and Huizhong Wu; Writing by Se Young Lee; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)