MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/. The death toll from the novel coronavirus in China has reached 2,663, while some 27,200 patients have recovered, China's National Health Commission said in a bulletin published on Tuesday.

Over the past 24 hours, 71 deaths were registered, while almost 2,600 peole were discharged from hospitals. The overall number of confirmed coronavirus cases in China now exceeds 77,600.

The bulk of recent deaths - 68 - were registered in the hardest-hit Chinese province of Hubei, where the disease broke out in December 2019. In total, the region accounts for about 64,800 confirmed cases of the infection. Over 2,100 people were discharged from hospitals in the region on Monday.

On December 31, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of an unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan - a large trade and industrial center in central China populated by 12 million people. The source of the outbreak is the COVID-19 coronavirus. Besides China, the cases of COVID-19 have been detected in 32 countries, including Russia. The WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak in China a global health emergency.