HONG KONG - Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) has reported seven more patients diagnosed as pneumonia caused by novel coronavirus on Sunday.

The seven people had attended the same family gathering last month with two people previously confirmed for the infection.

All those patients were proved to be family members of a 24-year-old man, who, along with his grandmother, was the first to be tested positive for the new virus after a family gathering of 19 people on Jan 26 in Kwun Tong district.

The total number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong rose to 36 as of 8:00 pm local time Sunday.

Epidemiological investigations showed that some of the confirmed cases were locally infected, a CHP spokesman said. "The public should go out less and reduce social activities, and maintain appropriate social distance with other people as far as possible."