China's data showing the number of people with COVID-19 has been in decline in China since the end of January, have been backed by the leader of the World Health Organization's health emergency program.

Maria Van Kerkhove said: "The reason we believe the data is real is because of the extent of case finding, contact tracing, and testing among other surveillance systems that is ongoing in China," during a daily news conference on Tuesday.  

Kerkhove's words echoed remarks made by Bruce Aylward, head of the joint WHO-China mission, after he traveled to China. He said the declining trend is believable, after his two weeks of investigation in the country.

The WHO also believes China's public health measures have had an impact on changing the natural trajectory of the outbreak there and has urged other countries to follow suit. 

"We believe that this is possible in other countries – by following these fundamental measures of looking for cases, looking for contacts, social distancing and washing respiratory etiquette, readying your systems, having an aggressive approach to this," said Kerkhove.