WUHAN, May 7 (Xinhua) -- No new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were reported in central China's Hubei Province for Wednesday, the provincial health commission said Thursday.

This marked that Hubei had reported no new confirmed COVID-19 cases for 33 consecutive days starting from April 4.

As of Wednesday, there were no existing confirmed COVID-19 cases in the province.

The province still had 626 asymptomatic cases under medical observation, after six new cases were reported and 13 were released from quarantine Wednesday.

A total of 282,865 close contacts of COVID-19 patients in the province had been tracked by Wednesday, 1,118 of whom were still under medical observation.

As of Wednesday, Hubei had reported 68,128 confirmed COVID-19 cases in total, including 50,333 in Wuhan, the provincial capital.

Hubei lowered its level of novel coronavirus emergency response from the highest to the second-highest starting May 2.  ■