BEIJING — The China Development Bank, one of the country's major policy banks, offered emergency loans worth 2 billion yuan ($288.3 million) on Jan 24 to Wuhan for prevention and control of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

The fund was approved and paid in a fast-track manner, and will be used for medical aid, emergency equipment, disease treatment, epidemic control and other fields in Wuhan, the capital city of Central China's Hubei province and the center of the 2019-nCoV outbreak.

The country's finance ministry on Jan 23 allocated a total of 1 billion yuan to support Hubei's battle against 2019-nCoV.