File photo: CGTN

WUHAN, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China has managed to improve the cure rate of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to 94 percent in the hardest-hit place in the country, central authorities said Friday.

Those cured include over 89 percent of the severely ill patients and more than 3,600 octogenarians or even older patients, said a central government group overseeing the epidemic response in the hardest-hit Hubei Province.

The provincial capital Wuhan, the former epicenter, had only 101 COVID-19 patients being treated for severe or critical conditions as of Friday, the authorities said, urging more efforts to treat them, most of whom have underlying health conditions and are of old age.