WUHAN, May 8 (Xinhua) -- No new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were reported in central China's Hubei Province on Thursday, the provincial health commission said Friday.

This marked that Hubei had reported no new confirmed COVID-19 cases for 34 consecutive days.

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

The province still had 629 asymptomatic cases under medical observation, after 16 new cases were reported and 13 were released from quarantine Thursday.

A total of 282,926 close contacts of COVID-19 patients in the province had been tracked by Thursday, 1,072 of whom were still under medical observation.

As of Thursday, 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.  ■