Patients do exercises led by medical staff at a temporary hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province, Feb 10, 2020. (XIONG QI / XINHUA)

BEIJING/WUHAN - China's new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus pneumonia outside Hubei province, where the epicenter city of Wuhan is located, has been dropping for seven consecutive days, according to the National Health Commission (NHC).

Addressing a press conference Tuesday, He Qinghua, an NHC official, said the outbreak situation in provincial-level regions except Hubei has shown an overall downward trend since Feb 3.

A total of 381 new confirmed cases were reported on Monday outside Hubei, data showed.

An official of the National Health Commission said the outbreak situation in provincial-level regions except Hubei has shown an overall downward trend since Feb 3

The numbers of new confirmed cases in these provinces from Feb 3 to 9 were 890, 731, 707, 696, 558, 509 and 444.

The commission received reports of 2,478 new confirmed cases and 108 deaths on Monday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Among the fatalities, 103 were in Hubei province, and one in Beijing, Tianjin, Heilongjiang, Anhui and Henan respectively, according to China's National Health Commission.

Besides the new fatalities, Hubei's health authorities reported 2,097 new confirmed cases.

Monday's number of new confirmed cases in the hardest-hit province was the fewest in nine days. The province registered 1,921 new confirmed cases on Feb 1, and the figure had since remained above 2,100 until Monday.

The provincial capital Wuhan reported 1,552 new infections and 67 new deaths, and the cities of Xiaogan and Huanggang reported 101 and 80 new confirmed cases, respectively, according to the Hubei Provincial Health Commission.

On Monday, Hubei province saw the fewest number of confirmed cases in nine days

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The commission said 3,390 suspected cases of infection were ruled out on Monday after testing.

Hubei saw 427 patients discharged from the hospital after recovery on Monday. It had seen 2,222 patients discharged after recovery from the hospital by Monday.

The province had 31,728 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection by Monday, with 974 deaths and 6,344 cases still in severe or critical conditions.

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The National Health Commission said nother 3,536 new suspected cases were reported Monday.

Also on Monday, 849 patients became seriously ill, while 716 people were discharged from hospital after recovery.

A total of 3,996 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery

The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland had reached 42,638 by the end of Monday, and 1,016 people had died of the disease.

The commission added that 7,333 patients remained in severe condition, and 21,675 people were suspected of being infected with the virus.

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A total of 3,996 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery.

The commission said 428,438 close contacts had been traced, adding that among them, 26,724 were released from medical observation Monday, with 187,728 others still under medical observation.

The measures taken by Chinese authorities, including extending the Chinese New Year holiday, promoting off-peak travel and stepping up the management of people's movement in key regions, have played a positive and important role in reducing infection rates and containing the outbreak, He said.

The commission has released a guideline on protection against the novel coronavirus for groups of people with different infection risks that offers tailored suggestions on the use of protective equipment, according to the official.

By the end of Monday, 42 confirmed cases including one death had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 10 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 18 in Taiwan.

One patient in Macao and one in Taiwan have been discharged from hospital after recovery.