China's coronavirus death toll climbed to 2,870 with 35 new deaths, while the confirmed cases increased to 79,824 even as the infections outside the worst-hit Hubei province dropped with only three positive cases reported in a single day, continuing the trend of slowdown in the rest of the country, health officials said Sunday. The National Health Commission (NHC) said it received reports of 573 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 35 deaths on Saturday from the Chinese mainland.

Among the deaths, 34 were in Hubei and one in Henan Province. COVID-19, which at one time started spreading rapidly all over China, showed a declining trend with three new confirmed cases reported outside Hubei on Saturday. Of the 573 confirmed cases, 570 were reported from Hubei and its capital Wuhan, which remained a battle ground for the virus ever since it originated from there in December last year.