As of midnight on Feb 23 (Beijing Time), t here still remained 49,824 confirmed cases (including 9,915 in serious condition) on the Chinese mainland. China's National Health Commission (NHC) had in total received 77,150 reports of COVID-19 confirmed cases and 2,592 deaths.

To date, 24,734 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital. The daily number of newly cured and discharged patients has surpassed that of new confirmed infections for the sixth consecutive day.

The number of new confirmed cases outside Hubei dropped from the peak of 890 to 11 on Feb. 23 despite some fluctuations.

24 province-level regions recorded zero new infections the same day.

More than 33,000 medical personnel, including 4,000 military medics, have been sent to Wuhan from across the country, while the number of hospital beds reserved for COVID-19 patients has risen to about 40,000.