Beijing-based firm Hanwang Technology Ltd. said a team of 20 staff used core technology developed over the past 10 years, a sample database of about 6 million unmasked faces and a much smaller database of masked faces to develop the technology.

Mainland China had 19 new cases of coronavirus infections on Monday, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday, down from 40 cases a day earlier.

China reported just 40 new cases of the virus on Monday. Last month, the number of new daily cases was in the thousands.

Some 21 of the 31 mainland regions have lowered emergency response levels.

Amy Passafiume and her husband Kevin moved to Beijing last summer, and are working as teachers at a bilingual school.

Communist leaders are trying to keep food flowing to crowded Chinese cities despite anti-disease controls and to quell fears of possible shortages and price spikes following panic buying after most access to Wuhan was cut off Jan. 23.

China's death toll from a new viral disease that is causing mounting global concern rose by 25 to at least 106 on Tuesday as the United States and other governments prepared to fly their citizens out of the locked-down city at centre of the outbreak.

China’s health minister said the country was entering a “crucial stage” as “it seems like the ability of the virus to spread is getting stronger.”

The outbreak coincides with the country’s busiest travel period, as millions board trains and planes for the Lunar New Year holidays.

China replaced its top official in Hong Kong on Saturday, state media said, as anti-government protests in the semi-autonomous territory enter their eighth month.