An epidemic prevention staff member checks a person's body temperature before the latter enters the construction site of China Eastern Airlines' production auxiliary area (phase one) at Chengdu Tianfu International Airport in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan province, Feb 11, 2020. (LIU KUN / XINHUA)

BEIJING/WUHAN - The proportion of patients who recovered from the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) in China had increased to 10.6 percent on Tuesday from the lowest 1.3 percent on Jan 27, Mi Feng, an official with the National Health Commission, said Wednesday.

The number of cured patients had seen relatively rapid growth, and the epidemic situation also had some positive changes in general due to the country's reinforced measures against the virus, Mi said at a press conference in Beijing.

Chinese health authorities Wednesday said it received reports of 2,015 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 97 deaths on Tuesday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

The number of new cases outside Hubei province, where the epicenter city of Wuhan is located, has been dropping for eight consecutive days, according to the National Health Commission.

The number of new cases outside Hubei province has been dropping for eight consecutive days, according to the National Health Commission

A total of 377 new confirmed cases were reported on Tuesday outside Hubei, data released by the commission showed.

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The numbers of new confirmed cases reported outside Hubei from Feb 3 to 10 were 890, 731, 707, 696, 558, 509, 444 and 381.

Among the 97 fatalities reported Tueday, 94 were in Hubei and one in Henan, Hunan and Chongqing respectively, according to the commission. 

Besides the 94 fatalities, here were 1,638 new confirmed cases in Hubei on Tuesday, local health authorities said.

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A total of 4,740 infected patients had been discharged from hospital after recovery

The commission said another 3,342 new suspected cases were reported Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, 871 patients became seriously ill, while 744 people were discharged from hospital after recovery.

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.

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The commission added that 8,204 patients remained in severe condition, and 16,067 people were suspected of being infected with the virus.

A total of 4,740 infected patients had been discharged from hospital after recovery.

The commission said 451,462 close contacts had been traced, adding that among them, 30,068 were discharged from medical observation Tuesday, with 185,037 others still under medical observation.

By the end of Tuesday, 49 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.