Hubei province – the epicenter of novel coronavirus outbreak - added 4,823 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus pneumonia as of Thursday night, increasing the province’s number of confirmed cases to 51,986, the provincial health commission said on Friday morning.

The death toll in the province rose by 116 at the same day, according to the commission.

Among the newly confirmed cases, 3,095 were clinically diagnosed as having the novel coronavirus pneumonia.

The commission said that as of Thursday, 690 people were released from the hospital while 36,719 are still in hospitalization - 7,593 of them with severe symptoms and 1,685 in critical condition.

The province has 6,169 people with suspected infections of the coronavirus and 5,352 were sent to temporary hospitals for quarantine as of Thursday.

So far, the province has traced 166,818 people who were in close contact with the patients and 77,685 of them are under medical observation.