Staff of a catering company distribute meals for medical workers at a hospital in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei province, Feb 16, 2020. (LIANG ZIDONG / XINHUA)

BEIJING/WUHAN - Chinese health authorities on Monday said it received reports of 2,048 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 105 deaths on Sunday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Among the fatalities, 100 were in Hubei province, center of the novel coronavirus outbreak,  three in Henan, and two in Guangdong, according to the National Health Commission.

The daily number of new confirmed cases outside Hubei has dropped for 13 consecutive days since Feb 3, according to the National Health Commission

There were 1,933 new confirmed cases reported in Hubei on Sunday, according to the provincial health commission Monday.

The latest figures bring the total number of confirmed cases in the hard-hit province to 58,182. Wuhan, the provincial capital, has recorded a total of 41,152 confirmed cases.

To ensure timely treatment for more patients and further curb the spread of the virus, Hubei regards those with pneumonia-related computerized tomography scan results but not yet tested positive for the virus as confirmed cases.

The daily number of new confirmed cases outside Hubei has dropped for 13 consecutive days since Feb 3, according to the National Health Commission.

Eight hundred and ninety new cases were reported outside Hubei on Feb 3.

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Another 1,563 new suspected cases were reported on Sunday, said the commission.

Also on Sunday, 1,425 people were discharged from hospital after recovery, of which 1,016 were reported in Hubei, bringing the total number of discharged patients in the province to 6,639.

In roundup, a total of 10,844 people had recovered and had been discharged from hospital.

Meanwhile, the number of severe cases in China had decreased by 628 to 10,644.

In Hubei, among the 40,814 hospitalized patients, 8,024 were still in severe condition and another 1,773 in critical condition.

The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland reached 70,548 by the end of Sunday, and 1,770 people had died of the disease.

The commission added that 7,264 people were still suspected of being infected with the virus.

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The commission said 546,016 close contacts had been traced, adding that among them, 28,179 were released from medical observation Sunday, with 150,539 others still under medical observation.

By the end of Sunday, 57 confirmed cases including one death had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), ten confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 20 in Taiwan including one death.

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