BEIJING — The total number of newly confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus has gradually decreased across China, showing a positive signal that the epidemic situation has improved, a health official said on Feb 21.

"The daily number of new confirmed cases nationwide dropped from the peak of 15,152 on Feb 12 to less than 900 on Feb 20," Zeng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health Commission, said at a press conference.

Also, the number of new confirmed cases of COVID-19 outside Hubei, the epicenter province of the outbreak, was 258 reported on Feb 20, down from the highest peak of 890 on Feb 3, Zeng said.

Since Feb 18, China's daily recovered people infected with the coronavirus had outnumbered new confirmed infections for three days in a row, the official said.