There were 411 newly confirmed cases and 115 deaths from the novel coronavirus epidemic in Hubei province as of Thursday, health officials reported on Friday morning.

The new cases and deaths compare with 349 and 108, respectively, reported by the Hubei Province Health Commission for Wednesday and bring the provincial totals to 62,442 and 2,144.

China reported its lowest number of new coronavirus cases on Thursday since January 23 when Wuhan – epicentre of the outbreak – went into lockdown, owing to another change in diagnostic criteria. Changes in diagnostic methods last week caused a nine-fold increase in new cases reported on February 13.

There were 394 new cases reported in mainland China, and a further 114 deaths, as of midnight Wednesday.

China’s National Health Commission has not yet reported new cases and fatalities for Thursday.