Head nurse Sun Chun (L) looks at doctor's advice on COVID-19 patients with colleagues at the First Hospital of Wuhan City in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 22, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)

BEIJING, Feb. 27  -- Chinese health authority said Thursday it received reports of 433 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 29 deaths on Wednesday from 31 provincial-level regions on the mainland.

Among the deaths, 26 were in Hubei Province, and one in Beijing, Heilongjiang and Henan, respectively, according to the National Health Commission.

Wednesday also saw 508 new suspected cases, as well as 2,750 people discharged from hospital after recovery and the number of severe cases down by 406 to 8,346.

The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 78,497 by the end of Wednesday, and 2,744 people had died of the disease.

The commission added that 2,358 people were still suspected of being infected with the virus.

A total of 32,495 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery.

The commission said 652,174 close contacts had been traced, adding that among them, 12,823 were discharged from medical observation Wednesday, and 71,572 others were still under medical observation.

By the end of Wednesday, 91 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-four patients in Hong Kong, seven in Macao and five in Taiwan had been discharged from hospital after recovery.