Central China's Hubei province, center of the novel coronavirus outbreak, reported 2,147 new confirmed cases and 81 new fatalities on Saturday, bringing the two numbers up to 27,100 and 780, respectively, according to the province's health commission.

In Wuhan city, the number of confirmed cases rose to 14,982 as of Saturday at midnight, followed by Xiaogan and Huanggang, with more than 2,000 confirmed cases. The number of confirmed cases in the two cities climbed to 2,436 and 2,141, respectively, the commission said.

A total of 23,638 suspected cases were reported on Thursday in the province, it said, adding that among them, 12,918 cases have been under centralized quarantine, and 1,128 had been excluded as new virus infections.

Jiang Chaoliang, Party chief of the province, said on Saturday night that it would finish testing all suspected cases in Wuhan in two days and concentrate medical resources on the treatment of the confirmed cases.

A total of 20,993 people sickened by the virus are still under medical treatment in the province, including 4,093 people with serious symptoms and 1,154 in critical condition, the commission said.

Health authorities there have traced 123,827 people who had close contact with patients, with 70,438 of them still under medical observation, according to the commission.