A volunteer helps a passenger register for his health information at Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station in Shanghai, east China, March 5, 2020. (WANG XIANG / XINHUA)

BEIJING/WUHAN - The Chinese mainland reported 17 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 caused by a novel coronavirus on Thursday outside Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, down from 890 on Feb. 3, according to the National Health Commission Friday.

Of them, 16 cases, including 11 in Gansu, four in Beijing and one in Shanghai, were imported from outside the Chinese mainland. The Chinese mainland saw a total of 36 imported COVID-19 cases as of the end of Thursday, data showed.

The Chinese mainland saw a total of 36 imported COVID-19 cases as of the end of Thursday, data from the National Health Commission showed

The commission said it received reports of 143 new confirmed cases Thursday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, including 126 from Hubei.  

Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei, reported 126 confirmed cases and 23 deaths on Thursday. Hubei reported no new confirmed cases outside Wuhan on Thursday.

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The commission added that it received reports of 30 deaths on Thursday, of which 29 were in Hubei and one in Hainan province.

Meanwhile, 102 new suspected cases were reported, said the commission.

Also on Thursday, 1,681 people were discharged from hospital after recovery, while the number of severe cases decreased by 215 to 5,737.

The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 80,552 by the end of Thursday, including 23,784 patients who were still being treated, 53,726 patients who had been discharged after recovery, and 3,042 people who had died of the disease.

Hubei reported no new confirmed cases outside Wuhan on Thursday

The commission said that 482 people were still suspected of being infected with the virus.

The commission added 29,896 close contacts were still under medical observation. On Thursday, 5,457 people were released from medical observation.

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Hubei also saw 1,487 patients discharged from hospital after recovery on Thursday, bringing the total number of discharged patients in the province to 41,966.

Among the 19,758 hospitalized patients, 4,592 were still in severe condition and another 996 in critical condition.

The commission said Hubei had 285 suspected cases, after 73 suspected cases were ruled out while 43 new suspected cases were reported on Thursday.

By the end of Thursday, 104 confirmed cases including two deaths had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 10 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 44 in Taiwan, including one death.

Forty-six patients in Hong Kong, nine in Macao and 12 in Taiwan had been discharged from hospital after recovery.