Huangshi in Central China's Hubei province, the center of the novel coronavirus outbreak, has seen its daily increase of new infections kept to about 30 for five straight days, a sign proving the effectiveness of its prevention and control measures, city mayor Wu Jin said at a news conference on Monday. 

He said daily new infections in the city peaked at 104. What makes the epidemic control situation in the city more optimistic is that less than 10 new cases were reported in each of the past two days. 

Meanwhile, medical institutions in the city also have seen a big drop in the number of patients with fever. The number of such patients these institutes received peaked at 1,500 after the outbreak occurred. Now the number stands at about 500, he said. 

As of Sunday midnight, a total of 983 infections had been confirmed in the city, including 15 deaths. Among the 762 infected patients still hospitalized, 74 exhibit serious symptoms and 25 are in critical condition, according to Wu. 

He said the positive changes in the city happened following a series of prevention and control measures. 

A total of 5,630 rooms have been transformed and used for quarantine in the city. Over 92 percent of the 1,822 people under medical observation have been isolated in designated zones, he said. 

He also said the city has isolated all people who exhibit fever but cannot be ruled out of the possibility of contracting the virus. Meanwhile, lockdown has been introduced to all residential communities in the city.  

However, while the cure rate in the city has reached almost 21 percent, the proportion of patients in serious and critical condition is rising and has reached almost 13 percent.