WUHAN, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The central Chinese province of Hubei that was hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak had reported no new confirmed cases for 35 consecutive days by Friday, according to local health authorities.

As of Friday, there were no existing confirmed COVID-19 cases in Hubei, where death toll from the virus stood at 4,512, including 3,869 in the capital city Wuhan.

The province still had 628 asymptomatic cases under medical observation, after 13 new cases were reported and 14 were released from quarantine Friday.

A total of 283,009 close contacts of COVID-19 patients in the province had been tracked by Friday, 1,053 of whom were still under medical observation.

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

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