BEIJING — China has stepped up efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Here are the latest developments:

— China reported 1,749 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 136 deaths on Feb 18 from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Among the deaths, 132 were in Hubei province and one in Heilongjiang, Shandong, Guangdong and Guizhou, respectively. Another 1,185 new suspected cases were reported on Feb 18.

The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland had reached 74,185 by the end of Feb 18, and 2,004 people had died of the disease.

— By the end of Feb 18, 62 confirmed cases including one death had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 10 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 22 in Taiwan including one death.

— China's daily number of newly recovered novel coronavirus patients has surpassed that of new confirmed infections for the first time.

Feb 18 saw 1,824 people walk out of hospital after recovery, higher than the same day's number of new confirmed infections of the novel coronavirus, which was 1,749.

A total of 14,376 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery by the end of Feb 18.

— China's daily new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus pneumonia outside Hubei, the epicenter province of the outbreak, have since Feb 3 dropped for 15 consecutive days. A total of 56 new confirmed cases were reported on Feb 18 outside Hubei.

— Hubei province, center of the novel coronavirus outbreak, reported 1,693 new confirmed cases and 132 new deaths on Feb 18. The latest report brought the total confirmed cases in the hard-hit province to 61,682. Wuhan, the provincial capital, recorded a total of 44,412 confirmed cases.

— China has released a circular requiring strengthened medical treatment and management of patients with severe mental disorders during the novel coronavirus epidemic.