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The Chinese city at the center of the coronavirus epidemic closed its first makeshift hospital, one of 16 hurriedly built to handle the epidemic, after it discharged the last recovered patients, Reuters reported, citing state broadcaster CCTV. 

News of the closure coincided with a sharp decline in new cases in Hubei province and the provincial capital Wuhan, but the country remained on alert as Chinese nationals returning home are testing positive for the virus.

China’s central Hubei province, the epicenter of the country’s coronavirus outbreak, reported less than 200 cases of new infections for the first time since January.

Hubei had 196 new confirmed cases on Sunday, the National Health Commission said on Monday, sharply down from 570 cases a day earlier and the lowest since Jan. 24.

The decline was driven by a fall in new cases in Wuhan, where the virus first appeared last December, which reported 193 new infections, the lowest since Jan. 26.

Mainland China had a total of 202 new confirmed cases, the lowest since Jan. 22. Excluding new infections in Hubei, there were only six new cases in mainland China, the lowest since last month. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in mainland China so far to 80,026.

The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China reached 2,912 as of the end of Sunday, up by 42 from the previous day.

Hubei accounted for all of the 42 new deaths, while 32 people died in Wuhan.

In line with the falling number of new infections, Wuhan closed its first makeshift hospital after it discharged the last batch of 34 recovered patients, CCTV reported.

As of Feb. 28, Wuhan has created 16 temporary hospitals, adding 13,000 beds, with 12,000 people treated so far. Overall, the number of Wuhan hospital beds have risen from 5,000 to 23,000.