BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese health authority said Friday it received reports of 55 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland on Thursday, of which 54 were imported.

A new domestic case was reported in Zhejiang Province, the National Health Commission said.

Of the imported cases, 17 were reported in Shanghai, 12 in Guangdong Province, and four in Beijing and Tianjin respectively. Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Zhejiang Province and Fujian Province each reported three cases. Shandong and Yunnan provinces both reported two. Provinces of Liaoning, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Shaanxi each reported one. By the end of Thursday, 595 imported cases had been reported, according to the commission.

Also on Thursday, five deaths and 49 new suspected cases were reported on the mainland, with all the deaths in Hubei Province, according to the commission.

On Thursday, 537 people were discharged from the hospital after recovery, while the number of severe cases decreased by 201 to 1,034.

The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 81,340 by the end of Thursday, including 3,460 patients who were still being treated, 74,588 patients who had been discharged after recovery, and 3,292 people who died of the disease.

The commission said that 189 people were still suspected of being infected with the virus.

The commission added that 16,005 close contacts were still under medical observation. On Thursday, 837 people were discharged from medical observation.

By the end of Thursday, 453 confirmed cases including four deaths had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 33 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 252 in Taiwan including two deaths.

A total of 110 patients in Hong Kong, 10 in Macao and 29 in Taiwan had been discharged from the hospital after recovery.  ■