Doctors encourage a patient to keep up his sprits at an isolation ward in Chongqing, Feb 2, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chongqing was declared clear of confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday morning when its last patient was cured and discharged from the hospital, 55 days after the virus outbreak began in the Southwest China municipality.

The city has seen no new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection for 19 consecutive days.

According to the municipality's health commission, Chongqing had a total of 576 confirmed cases of the disease, with six deaths and 569 cured as of Saturday midnight.

Chongqing, a city of 30 million people, was facing a serious battle to control the epidemic as it has close transport ties to Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, the city hardest hit by the epidemic in China.