The number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus totaled 208 by midnight Monday in Shanghai, with five new cases confirmed during the latter 12 hours Monday, the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission said.

One of the new confirmed patients was in critical condition and all the five people were residents of Shanghai, the commission said on Tuesday.

The confirmed patients range from 7 months old to 88. Seventy-nine are from outside of Shanghai and 129 are the city's residents. Altogether 116 of the cases had recently lived or traveled to Central China's Hubei province, the epicenter, and 84 had close contact with those confirmed patients previously.

Altogether 183 of the patients are in stable health condition, while six are in critical and another eight in severe condition. Altogether 10 patients have recovered from the disease and been discharged from hospital, and one died.

The commission said 523 suspected cases have been excluded in Shanghai and 168 such cases are still under medical quarantine and observation.

The Shanghai government said on Monday that previously two confirmed patients who claimed they had not had close contact with those confirmed patients were eventually found to actually have had such close contact.

The government reminded all the confirmed and suspected patients to be completely honest about their disease history, which is vital to the prevention and control of the epidemic.