BEIJING, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- The total number of newly confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus has gradually decreased across China, showing a positive signal that the epidemic situation has improved, a health official said Friday.

"The daily number of new confirmed cases nationwide dropped from the peak of 15,152 on Feb. 12 to less than 900 on Thursday," Zeng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health Commission, said at a press conference.

Also, the number of new confirmed cases of COVID-19 outside Hubei, the epicenter province of the outbreak, was 258 reported on Thursday, down from the highest peak of 890 on Feb. 3, Zeng said.

Since Feb. 18, China's daily recovered people infected with the coronavirus had outnumbered new confirmed infections for three days in a row, the official said.