A total of 889 new cases of the novel coronavirus were confirmed on the Chinese mainland, and 118 new deaths were reported on Thursday, according to China's National Health Commission.

That brings the total number of confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland to 75,465, and the cumulative death toll to 2,236 by the end of Thursday.

Thursday marked the second consecutive day that China's daily number of new infections remained under 1,000. No new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) were reported as of Thursday in 14 provincial-level regions of China and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Chinese health authorities said that, on Thursday, 2,109 patients were discharged from the hospitals, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 18,264.

The daily number of newly cured and discharged novel coronavirus patients has surpassed that of new confirmed infections for the third consecutive day. The newly recovered coronavirus patients in both Hubei Province and its capital city of Wuhan outnumbered new infections on Thursday.

The number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and China's Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 68 (two dead, five recovered)

Macao: 10 (six recovered)

Taiwan: 24 (one dead, two recovered)