Chongqing is still facing a severe epidemic situation — though the spread of the novel coronavirus has been curbed in recent days — a local spokesperson said at a press briefing on Thursday.

As of noon Jan 30, there were 182 confirmed cases across the municipality in Southwest China, including 18 severe cases, four critical ones and one patient cured.

The Chongqing Municipal Health Commission announced the first patient to be cured since the beginning of the outbreak was discharged from hospital on Jan 29.

There were 35 new added confirmed cases on Jan 26, 22 on Jan 27, 15 on Jan 28 and 18 on Jan 29.

"The spread of the virus has been contained, but we are still facing a severe epidemic situation as Chongqing has close links with neighboring Hubei province and people start to go back to work," Chongqing spokesperson Luo Lin said.

Chongqing has set up a centralized treatment system and designated four hospitals as treatment facilities. The four hospitals, with a total of 1,200 beds, have so far treated 121 patients. There are also two backup hospitals with 2,000 beds, according to Zhou Lin, deputy director of the local health commission.

"So far no medical worker in Chongqing has been infected and no one has died of the virus," he said.

Hong Kong infectious disease experts said on Monday that Chongqing may become the next hot spot of the current novel coronavirus outbreak due to its close connection with the epicenter Wuhan.