BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- China has stepped up efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Here are the latest developments:

File photo: CGTN

-- 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, bringing overall confirmed cases to 78,497 and total deaths to 2,744.

-- Hubei Province, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, reported 409 new confirmed cases of infection and 26 new deaths on Wednesday, the provincial health commission said Thursday.

-- Wednesday saw 2,750 people on the mainland walk out of hospital after recovery, much higher than the new confirmed infections. The daily number of newly cured and discharged novel coronavirus patients on the Chinese mainland has surpassed that of new infections for the ninth consecutive day, the National Health Commission said Thursday.

-- A total of 16 provincial-level regions in China -- Gansu, Liaoning, Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Anhui, Hainan, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Jilin have lowered their emergency response levels to the novel coronavirus as of Feb. 26.

-- 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.