WUHAN - The government of Hubei province, the central Chinese province that is the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, has given the official fatality rates for the virus for the first time, Chinese media reported.

Unexpectedly, Wuhan, the provincial capital city where the virus first emerged, registered a fatality rate of 4.06 per cent, coming in second. It was topped by Tianmen, a nearby city, which has a death rate of 5.08 per cent, Caixin Global reported on Sunday (Feb 9).

With 871 deaths reported as of Sunday, the fatality rate of Hubei province on the whole is 2.88 per cent, the report said.

Since Feb 5, Huanggang has been overtaken as the second most hard-hit city after Wuhan.

As of end of Feb 8, Xiaogan, a city with a population of 4.92 million to the west of Wuhan, reported 2,436 confirmed cases. That compares to the 2,141 cases found among the 7.5 million-strong population of Huanggang, a city to Wuhan's east.

Mr Jiao Yahui, deputy director of the medical administration bureau of the National Health Commission, had earlier explained that the high mortality rate in Hubei can be attributed mainly to the fact that most of the critically ill patients are warded in the province's three main hospitals, which are under strain from a lack of beds as well as professional medical staff.

According to medical experts and front-line doctors, 15 to 20 per cent of coronavirus patients could develop severe conditions, and among them, 25 to 30 per cent could worsen to critical condition, Caixin Global reported.

There has yet to be a widely agreed mortality rate for the disease. Several ICU doctors estimate that the death rate among patients in critical condition ranges from 10 to 40 per cent, meaning the overall mortality rate may be 0.6 to 1 per cent.

Hubei reported 2,618 new confirmed cases and 91 new deaths on Sunday, local health authorities said on Monday, Xinhua reported.

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Wuhan reported 1,921 new infections and 73 new deaths, and the cities of Huanggang and Xiaogan reported 115 and 105 new confirmed cases, respectively, according to the Hubei Provincial Health Commission.

The province also saw 356 patients discharged from hospital after recovery on Sunday. It had seen 1,795 patients discharged after recovery from hospital by Sunday.

Hubei had 29,631 confirmed cases of the coronavirus infection by Sunday, with 871 deaths and 5,505 cases still in severe or critical conditions.

Across mainland China, there were 3,062 new confirmed infections as of Sunday, bringing the total number so far to 40,171.