A woman wearing a face mask stretches on a street in Beijing on March 10, 2020. (PHOTO / STR / AFP)

BEIJING - Chinese health authorities said Wednesday that the rapid development of the COVID-19 outbreak outside China has brought uncertainty to the domestic epidemic prevention work.

The Chinese mainland reported 11 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday outside Hubei province, the center of the outbreak. Of them, 10 cases were imported from outside the mainland, said Mi Feng, an official with the National Health Commission at a press conference.

Of the 10 new imported infections, six were reported in Beijing, two in Shanghai, one in Shandong and one in Gansu, according to the commission.

Of the 10 new imported infections, six were reported in Beijing, two in Shanghai, one in Shandong and one in Gansu, according to the National Health Commission

As of the end of Tuesday, the Chinese mainland had seen a total of 79 imported COVID-19 cases, Mi said.

According to Mi, the total number of new confirmed cases and suspected cases nationwide has remained in double digits for five consecutive days, with only two new confirmed indigenous cases outside Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei, in the last five days.

"The epidemic situation continues developing toward a good prospect," said Mi.

But the epidemic prevention and control work remained arduous as the numbers of confirmed cases in Hubei and Wuhan were still high, Mi stressed.

ALSO READ: Xi's visit to Wuhan signals new stage in anti-virus fight

The commission said it received reports of 24 new confirmed cases and 22 deaths on the mainland on Tuesday.

Thirteen of the new infections and all of the newly reported deaths were in Hubei province, according to the commission.

According to the provincial health commission in Hubei, all the new infections and 19 of the newly reported deaths were in Wuhan, the provincial capital.

As of Tuesday, Hubei had seen no new confirmed COVID-19 cases for six consecutive days in its 16 cities and prefectures outside Wuhan. The daily number of new confirmed cases in the province has been kept in double-digit for five consecutive days and continued to drop.

ALSO READ: Hubei adopts health code system, relaxes travel curbs

Meanwhile, 31 new suspected cases were reported, said the nation's health commission.

Also on Tuesday, 1,578 people were discharged from hospital after recovery, while the number of severe cases decreased by 302 to 4,492.

While the epidemic situation "continues developing toward a good prospect", prevention and control work remained arduous as the numbers of confirmed cases in Hubei and Wuhan were still high, an official stressed

The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 80,778 by the end of Tuesday, including 16,145 patients who were still being treated, 61,475 patients who had been discharged after recovery, and 3,158 people who died of the disease.

In Hubei, the total number of confirmed cases had reached 67,773, and 3,046 deaths had been reported. Wuhan had reported 49,978 confirmed cases and 2,423 deaths as of Tuesday, according to the provincial health commission.

The province also saw 1,471 patients discharged from hospital after recovery on Tuesday, bringing the total number of discharged patients in the province to 49,056.

Among the 13,712 hospitalized patients, 3,613 were still in severe condition and another 799 in critical condition. The commission also said Hubei had 198 suspected cases, after 54 were ruled out while six new suspected cases were reported on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the nation's health commission said that overall, 285 people were still suspected of being infected with the virus.

The commission added that 14,607 close contacts were still under medical observation. On Tuesday, 3,235 people were released from medical observation.

READ MORE: 'China sees sharp decline in new cases, anti-virus effort impressive'

By the end of Tuesday, 120 confirmed cases including three deaths had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 10 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 47 in Taiwan including one death.

A total of 65 patients in Hong Kong, 10 in Macao and 17 in Taiwan had been discharged from hospital after recovery.