The Shanghai Municipal Health Commission has confirmed that a patient infected with the deadly coronavirus has, for the first time since the outbreak, been cured and discharged from hospital.

After six days, the patient, a 56-year-old woman identified only as Chen, showed a significant improvement in her respiratory symptoms. Two independent blood tests for the coronavirus came back negative, as did pulmonary CT scans, according to the state-owned Beijing Daily newspaper.

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The patient was then released from quarantine following a further examination by experts deployed to tackle the disease.

Chen reportedly lived in Wuhan, the city at the center of the outbreak, for many years. She developed fever and fatigue on January 10 and was hospitalized in Shanghai on January 12.

A staggering 23 million people have been quarantined as Chinese authorities attempt to contain the outbreak which so far has claimed the lives of some 26 people and infected a further 800, at least.

Local authorities in Wuhan are attempting to build a specialized treatment facility in the next 10 days to house all coronavirus patients under one roof, to further limit the spread of the virus. The China Development Bank has granted the city a two billion yuan ($290 million) emergency loan to help fight the outbreak.

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