Coronavirus cases are not rising dramatically outside China despite a spike in Hubei province, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

The only exception was on a cruise liner docked in Japan, where 44 new cases were reported, bringing the total there to 218.

There was also no major shift in the coronavirus's pattern of mortality or severity, according to the WHO.

The latest figures show 121 new deaths in China, bringing the total to 1,380.

The total infections jumped by 5,090 to 55,748 cases on 13 February, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said on Friday.

The latest figures from Hubei recorded 116 deaths and 4,823 new cases. That is a smaller increase than the previous day when there was a spike with 240 new deaths and nearly 15,000 new cases.

However, most of this was down to Hubei using a broader definition to diagnose people, said Dr. Michael Ryan, head of WHO's health emergencies program.

Speaking at media briefing on COVID-19 in Geneva, Dr. Michael Ryan noted on February 13 that in the last 24 hours China has reported 1,820 laboratory-confirmed cases, bringing the total to 46,550.

In addition, China reported 13,332 clinically confirmed cases in Hubei province, he noted.  

According to Dr. Ryan, they are working with their colleagues in China, and WHO team there are working very hard to see exactly how many days and weeks and how those numbers are spread across those days and weeks.

In the rest of China and the rest of the world, laboratory confirmation for reporting is still required, he said.

Outside China, there are 447 cases from 24 other countries, and now two deaths. In addition to the death in the Philippines, there is now one more death in Japan, Dr. Ryan noted.

On Thursday Japan announced its first coronavirus death - a woman in her 80s who lived in Kanagawa, south-west of Tokyo.  The woman's diagnosis was confirmed after her death and she had no obvious link to China's Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, Japanese media reported.

Dr. Ryan notes that the number of countries reporting cases has still not changed and “outside the cases on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, we’re not seeing a dramatic increase in transmission outside China.”