Accompanied by two community workers, a recovered COVID-19 patient goes back home from hospital in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, on March 12, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

Although new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus pneumonia have fallen drastically in Wuhan, Hubei province, the risk of community infection still exists because there were still outpatient cases from communities in the past days, a local health official said on March 15.

The number of daily confirmed cases in Wuhan has dropped to single digits recently, so many residents believe that the outbreak was under control and want to go out and return to normal life, said Zheng Yun, deputy director of the Wuhan Health Commission.

However, Wuhan's situation is still serious according to the epidemiological investigation and analysis and the rule of infectious disease, Zheng said.

He said there were outpatient cases from communities for several days. For example, there was one confirmed case from the outpatient service on both Friday and Saturday.

Investigation found the patients and their family had gone out and walked in their neighborhoods, so the possibility of community infection was not excluded, he added.

"There is still a certain risk of community infection, so we should maintain a high degree of vigilance and do not take it lightly," Zheng said.

He called on residents to avoid going out and wear masks and keep distance with others if they have to.