1st LD-Writethru: China's Hubei reports no increase in COVID-19 cases for 27 consecutive days

No new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were reported in central China's Hubei Province Thursday, the provincial health commission said Friday.

This marks that Hubei, the once hardest hit Chinese province, has had no new confirmed COVID-19 cases for 27 consecutive days since April 4.

Hubei was cleared of confirmed COVID-19 cases on Sunday.

The province reported 631 asymptomatic cases under medical observation, after 19 such cases were added and 11 released from quarantine Thursday.

A total of 282,482 close contacts of COVID-19 patients in the province had been tracked by Thursday, 1,434 of whom were still under medical observation.

Hubei has so far reported 68,128 confirmed COVID-19 cases in total, including 50,333 in Wuhan.