BEIJING — China has stepped up efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Here are the latest developments:
— Beijing will convert an industrial building into a new mask factory, which is expected to produce 250,000 masks per day, in six days to meet the surging demand amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.
— Delivery points will be set up in all residential communities and villages in Wuhan to curb virus spread.
According to a notice issued by the city's epidemic control headquarters, packages will be delivered at designated points near the entrances of residential communities or villages to create "no face-to-face contact" delivery.
— Among the COVID-19 patients currently receiving convalescent plasma therapy in Wuhan, one has been discharged from hospital.
Another patient has become able to walk and the rest are recovering, Sun Yanrong, an official with the Ministry of Science and Technology, said at a press conference in Beijing, adding that another 10 patients will receive the convalescent plasma therapy this week.
— Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been proven effective in curing COVID-19 patients, a Chinese health official said on Feb 18.
TCM has been used in treating 60,107 confirmed cases in China, or 85.2 percent of the total.
— Beijing reported one new confirmed case of the novel coronavirus on Feb 16, bringing the number of infections in the capital to 381, the Beijing Municipal Health Commission said on Feb 17.
— Shanghai gave the green light for freight vehicles to transport freely in the Yangtze River Delta starting from Feb 17, to facilitate factories resuming operation and people returning to work amid the epidemic.
— More Chinese provinces and cities said they would waive entrance fees to their major scenic spots for the nation's medical workers this year.
— A makeshift hospital was delivered on Feb 17 in the northwestern Chinese city of Xi'an to treat the novel coronavirus disease patients. The hospital in the district of Gaoling has a floor area of 27,542 square meters and offers 500 beds.
— Xiaogan, one of the cities hardest hit by the novel coronavirus in Central China's Hubei province, has prohibited all urban residents from going out to contain the spread of the highly infectious disease.
It has also banned rural residents from wandering, visiting others or gathering in villages.
— China reported 2,048 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 105 deaths on Feb 16 from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
Among the deaths, 100 were in Hubei province, three in Henan, and two in Guangdong. Another 1,563 new suspected cases were reported on Feb 16.
— A total of 10,844 patients infected with the novel coronavirus had been discharged from hospital after recovery by the end of Feb 16.
By the end of Feb 16, a total of 1,770 people had died of the disease and 70,548 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection had been reported in 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in China.
-- China's daily new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection outside Hubei, the epicenter province of the outbreak, have since Feb 3 dropped for 13 consecutive days. A total of 115 new confirmed cases were reported on Feb 16 outside Hubei.
— Hubei province reported 1,933 new confirmed cases and 100 new deaths on Feb 16. The latest report brought the total confirmed cases in the hard-hit province to 58,182. Wuhan, the provincial capital, recorded a total of 41,152 confirmed cases.
— Nearly 4 million workers from China's primary-level medical and health institutions, including both community health service centers in cities and clinics in rural areas, have played an important and unique role in the fight against the coronavirus.
Medical workers at the primary level have engaged in timely detections of fever patients and suspected cases to ensure the implementation of isolation and patient transfer, while they also need to carry out daily diagnosis and treatment for common diseases and the management of chronic diseases.
