The number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus-caused pneumonia has rose to 34,546 on the Chinese mainland as of Friday at midnight, including 722 deaths, according to the National Health Commission.

Of them, 3,399 confirmed cases and 86 deaths were newly reported on Friday, the commission said.

A total of 4,214 suspected cases were reported on Friday, bringing the total number of suspected cases on the Chinese mainland to 27,657 as of Friday at midnight, it said.

Health authorities on the mainland have traced 345,498 people who had close contact with patients, with 189,660 of them still under medical observation, it said.

As of Friday, a total of 2,050 patients have recovered and been discharged from the hospital on the mainland, it added.

Hubei province, the center of the outbreak, reported 2,841 new cases and 81 new deaths on Friday, bringing the two figures up to 24,953 and 699 respectively, according to the province’s health commission.

It added that 19,835 patients in Hubei are being hospitalized, of whom, 4,188 are serious cases and 1,007 are in critical condition.