THE Chinese mainland’s daily new confirmed cases of COVID-19 outside Hubei Province, epicenter of the outbreak, dropped to five Tuesday, according to the National Health Commission.

The commission said yesterday it received reports of 406 new confirmed cases Tuesday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, including 401 from Hubei.

On Monday, nine new confirmed cases were reported outside Hubei. The Sunday figure stood at 11.

The commission also said it received reports of 52 deaths Tuesday from 31 provincial-level regions.

All of the new deaths were in Hubei Province, according to the commission.

Another 439 new suspected cases were reported Tuesday, said the commission.

Also on Tuesday, 2,422 people were discharged from hospitals after recovery, while the number of severe cases decreased by 374 to 8,752.

The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 78,064 by the end of Tuesday, and 2,715 people had died of the disease.

The commission added that 2,491 people were still suspected of being infected with the virus.

A total of 29,745 people had been discharged from hospitals after recovery.

The commission said 647,406 close contacts had been traced, adding that among them, 14,573 were discharged from medical observation Tuesday, with 79,108 others still under medical observation.

By the end of Tuesday, 85 confirmed cases including two deaths had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 10 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 31 in Taiwan including one death.

Eighteen patients in Hong Kong, seven in Macao and five in Taiwan had been discharged from hospital after recovery. (Xinhua)