A total of 394 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 114 new fatalities were reported Wednesday on the Chinese mainland, bringing the two numbers up to 74,576 and 2,118 respectively, according to the National Health Commission.

With the majority of the new confirmed cases reported from Hubei province, where the epidemic is the most severe, the rest of the country only saw 45 new infections on Wednesday, which means the country's daily new confirmed cases outside Hubei have been dropping for 16 days in a row.

On the previous day, 56 new cases were reported outside Hubei on the Chinese mainland.

A total of 1,277 suspected cases were reported on the same day, bringing the total number of suspected cases on the Chinese mainland to 4,922 as of Wednesday midnight, the commission said.

The country has seen 1,779 new recovery cases on Wednesday, it said, adding that a total of 16,155 people have been discharged from the hospital on the mainland as of Wednesday midnight.

The number of confirmed cases rose to 65 in Hong Kong, including two deaths and five recovery cases, 10 in Macao, including five recovery cases, and 24 in Taiwan, including one death and two patients discharged from the hospital, the commission said.

Health authorities on the mainland have traced 589,163 people with close contact with patients, with 126,363 of them still under medical observation, according to the commission.