THE number of daily new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection fell from a peak of 3,887 on Feb. 4 to 2,015 Tuesday, with a decrease of 48.2 percent, the National Health Commission (NHC) said yesterday.

Outside Hubei, the epicenter, China’s new confirmed cases of COVID-19 has been dropping for eight consecutive days, the NHC said.

Noting that the epidemic situation remains grave at the moment, NHC spokesperson Mi Feng identified some positive changes in the statistics as a result of a series of effective measures.

For example, the number of newly reported suspected cases dropped by 37.3 percent from 5,328 on Feb. 5 to Tuesday’s 3,342.

According to official statistics, Tuesday saw a total of 744 people discharged from hospitals after recovery, including 417 in Hubei Province, and by the end of the day, a total of 4,740 people had been discharged from hospitals after recovery.

He highlighted the rapid increase in the number of people cured and discharged from hospitals, bringing the recovery rate to 10.6 percent by Tuesday from the lowest level of 1.3 percent on Jan. 27.

He Qinghua, deputy director of the commission’s Disease Control and Prevention Department, said Tuesday that the outbreak on the Chinese mainland has shown an overall downward trend even when Hubei Province is included.

The NHC yesterday said it received reports of 97 deaths Tuesday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland had reached 44,653 by the end of Tuesday, and 1,113 people had died of the disease.

Authorities across China have sent about 20,000 medical workers to Hubei to aid its fight against COVID-19.    

(Xinhua)