BEIJING/WUHAN : China's daily number of patients who have recovered from the novel coronavirus has surpassed the number of new confirmed infections for the first time, according to the National Health Commission.

Tuesday (Feb 18) saw 1,824 people discharged from hospital following recovery, higher than the same day's number of new confirmed cases, which was 1,749, figures released on Wednesday (Feb 19) by the commission showed.

A total of 14,376 patients infected with the novel coronavirus had been discharged from hospital after recovery by the end of Tuesday, according to the commission.

The daily number of new confirmed cases outside Hubei, the epicentre province of the outbreak, has dropped for 15 straight days since Feb 3 with 56 cases reported on Tuesday, the commission added.

The commission also said it received reports of 136 deaths on Tuesday, of which 132 were in Hubei, and one in Heilongjiang, Shandong, Guangdong and Guizhou, respectively.

Besides the 132 fatalites, Hubei saw 1,693 new confirmed cases on Tuesday, bringing the total confirmed cases in the hard-hit province to 61,682, according to local health authorities on Wednesday

The province also saw 1,266 patients discharged from hospital after recovery on Tuesday, bringing the total number of discharged patients in the province to 9,128.

Among the 43,471 hospitalised patients in Hubei, 9,289 of them were still in severe condition and another 1,957 in critical condition.

Another 1,185 new suspected cases were reported Tuesday, while 236 patients became seriously ill, said the commission.

The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland had reached 74,185 by the end of Tuesday, and 2,004 people had died of the disease.

The commission added that 11,977 patients remained in severe condition, and 5,248 people were suspected of being infected with the virus.

The commission said 574,418 close contacts had been traced, adding that among them, 25,014 were released from medical observation on Tuesday, with 135,881 others still under medical observation.

By the end of Tuesday, 62 confirmed cases including one death had been reported in the Hong Kong, 10 confirmed cases in the Macao and 22 in Taiwan including one death.

Four patients in Hong Kong, five in Macao and two in Taiwan have been discharged from hospital after recovery.

 - ANN