A recovered patient (right) waves to other patients as she leaves the ward at a hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province, Feb 18, 2020. (WANG YUGUO / XINHUA)

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 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 Wednesday by the commission showed.

1,824 patients were discharged from hospital after recovering from the coronavirus on Tuesday, while 1,749 others were confirmed as new cases

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 epicenter province of the outbreak, has dropped for 15 straight days with 56 cases reported on Tuesday, a sharp down from the 890 cases on Feb 3, the commission added.

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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 hospitalized patients in Hubei, 9,289 of them were still in severe condition and another 1,957 in critical condition. 

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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 Tuesday, with 135,881 others still under medical observation.

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By the end of Tuesday, 62 confirmed cases including one death had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 10 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, 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.