A patient who has recovered poses for photos with medical workers at Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province, Feb 27, 2020. (GAO XIANG / XINHUA)

BEIJING - The daily number of new recovery cases on the Chinese mainland has surpassed that of new infections for the 10th consecutive day, the National Health Commission said Friday.

Chinese health authorities said it received reports of 327 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 44 deaths on Thursday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

The National Health Commission on Friday reported 327 new confirmed infections on Thursday, and said 3,622 people were discharged from hospital after recovery

Thursday marked the ninth consecutive day that daily number of new infections on the mainland remained under 1,000.

Nine of the new infections were reported outside Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, and 318 in the hard-hit province. 

Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei, reported 313 new confirmed cases and 28 deaths. 

Among the newly reported deaths, 41 were in Hubei, two in Beijing and one in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, according to the commission.

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Thursday saw 3,622 people on the mainland discharged from hospital after recovery, much higher than the number of new confirmed infections. Among the 3,622 people, 3,203 patients were in Hubei.

A total of 36,117 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery, of which 26,403 of those discharged were in Hubei.

Another 452 new suspected cases were reported Thursday, said the commission, while the number of severe cases decreased by 394 to 7,952.

The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 78,824 by the end of Thursday, and 2,788 people had died of the disease. 

In Hubei, the number of total confirmed cases had reached 65,914 and there had been 2,682 deaths.

The commission added that 2,308 people were still suspected of being infected with the virus.

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The commission said 656,054 close contacts had been traced, adding that among them, 10,525 were released from medical observation Thursday, with 65,225 others still under medical observation.

By the end of Thursday, 93 confirmed cases including two deaths had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 10 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 32 in Taiwan including one death.

Twenty six patients in Hong Kong, eight in Macao and six in Taiwan had been discharged from hospital after recovery.