BEIJING, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese health authority said Sunday it received reports of 46 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland on Saturday, of which 45 were imported from abroad.

Of the imported cases, 14 were reported in Shanghai, 13 in Beijing, seven in Guangdong Province, four in Fujian Province and two in Jiangsu Province. Provinces of Hebei, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Shandong and Sichuan each reported one case. By the end of Saturday, 314 imported cases had been reported, according to the National Health Commission.

Also on Saturday, six deaths and 45 new suspected cases were reported on the mainland with five of the deaths reported in Hubei Province.

On Saturday, 504 people were discharged from hospital after recovery, while the number of severe cases decreased by 118 to 1,845.

The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 81,054 by the end of Saturday, including 5,549 patients who were still being treated, 72,244 patients who had been discharged after recovery, and 3,261 people who died of the disease.

The commission said that 118 people were still suspected of being infected with the virus.

The commission added that 10,071 close contacts were still under medical observation. On Saturday, 1,110 people were discharged from medical observation.

By the end of Saturday, 273 confirmed cases including four deaths had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 18 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 153 in Taiwan including two deaths.

A total of 100 patients in Hong Kong, 10 in Macao and 28 in Taiwan had been discharged from hospital after recovery.  ■