Beijing, Feb 9 (IANS): The death toll due to the novel coronavirus outbreak in China has increased to 811, authorities said on Sunday, while the number of confirmed cases have crossed 37,000.

Chinese health authorities said it received reports of 2,656 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 89 deaths on Saturday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Xinhua reported.

Among the deaths, 81 were in Hubei Province, two in Henan as well as one in Hebei, Heilongjiang, Anhui, Shandong, Hunan and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region respectively, according to China's National Health Commission.

Another 3,916 new suspected cases were reported Saturday, said the commission.

Also on Saturday, 87 patients became seriously ill, while 600 people were discharged from hospital after recovery.

The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland had reached 37,198 by the end of Saturday, the commission said, noting that a total of 811 people had died of the disease.

The commission added that 6,188 patients remained in severe condition, and 28,942 people were suspected of being infected with the virus.

A total of 2,649 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery.

The commission said 3,71,905 close contacts had been traced, adding that among them, 31,124 were discharged from medical observation Saturday, with 1,88,183 others still under medical observation.

By the end of Saturday, 26 confirmed cases including one death had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 10 in the Macao SAR and 17 in Taiwan.

One patient in Macao and one in Taiwan have been discharged from hospital after recovery.