Patients who have recovered from the novel coronavirus walk out of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University with medical staff in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang province, Feb 5, 2020. (XU YU / XINHUA)

BEIJING/WUHAN - Chinese health authorities Thursday said it received reports of 3,694 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 73 deaths on Wednesday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Among the new fatalities, 70 were in Hubei province, one in Tianjin, one in Heilongjiang and one in Guizhou, according to China's National Health Commission.

The number of new suspected cases in China of the novel coronavirus has dropped for two consecutive days, and fell to under 4,000 on Tuesday, new figures show

In Hubei, local health authorities reported 2,987 new infections  on Wednesday.

The provincial capital Wuhan reported 1,766 new infections and 52 new deaths, and the cities of Xiaogan, Huanggang and Suizhou reported 424, 162 and 128 new confirmed cases, respectively, according to the Hubei Provincial Health Commission. Also on Wednesday, authorities discharged 113 patients from the hospital after recovery in the province.

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The National Health Commission said that there were 5,328 new suspected cases reported on Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, 640 patients became seriously ill, and 261 people were discharged from hospital after recovery.

The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland had reached 28,018 by the end of Wednesday, the commission said, noting that a total of 563 people had died of the disease.

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The commission added that 3,859 patients remained in severe condition, and 24,702 people were suspected of being infected with the virus.

A total of 1,153 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery.

The number of new suspected cases in China of the novel coronavirus has dropped for two consecutive days, and fell to under 4,000 on Tuesday, new figures show.

Increased testing that either cleared suspected people of contracting the virus or confirmed diagnoses has resulted in the slower growth rate, health experts said.

The commission said 282,813 close contacts had been traced, adding that among them, 21,365 were released from medical observation on Wednesday, with 186,354 others still under medical observation.

By the end of Wednesday, 21 confirmed cases had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), including one death, 10 in the Macao SAR and 11 in Taiwan.