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

— Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, has put 12 temporary hospitals into operation, the city's epidemic prevention and control headquarters said on Feb 19.

— Two more hospitals under the control of military medics have been put into use on Feb 19 in Wuhan.

So far, the armed forces have dispatched more than 4,000 healthcare professionals to support Hubei in the fight against the epidemic outbreak.

— The COVID-19 epidemic in Hubei has been gradually brought under control, said an official with the National Health Commission (NHC).

The daily count of newly cured and discharged cases in Hubei, excluding the capital city of Wuhan, has exceeded the number of newly confirmed cases for four consecutive days as of Feb 19, said NHC spokesperson Mi Feng.

He also noted that the number of newly confirmed cases has decreased significantly since Feb 13 in areas besides Wuhan, and the increase in the cumulative number of confirmed cases has remained flat.

— The novel coronavirus can be transmitted when someone was exposed to high concentrations of aerosol in a relatively closed environment for a long time, health authorities said.

The respiratory droplets and close contact transmission are the major routes of the coronavirus infection, according to the latest version of the diagnosis and treatment plan issued by the National Health Commission and National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine on Feb 19.

— About 37 percent of Shanghai's street vendors had resumed businesses by Feb 18, local authorities said on Feb 19. The financial hub has about 245,000 such vendors.

Shanghai has taken a variety of measures to prevent coronavirus infection.

— China's courier sector has resumed over 40 percent of its normal delivery capacity with over 2 million deliverymen racing against the ongoing epidemic.

Some 112 million parcels were collected by deliverymen on Feb 17, while more than 80 million were delivered, data from the State Post Bureau showed.

The country's major courier firms resumed services on Feb 10 after an extended Spring Festival holiday due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

— East China's Jiangsu province released a slew of measures on Feb 18, including tax cuts and financial support, to help film-related businesses weather the novel coronavirus epidemic.

Jiangsu has nearly 1,000 cinemas across the province, with box office sales reaching about 6 billion yuan in 2019.

— Shanghai reported no new confirmed case of the novel coronavirus on Feb 18, the municipal health commission said on Feb 19.

By the midnight of Feb 18, a total of 333 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection were reported in Shanghai, with 173 male patients and 160 females, aging from seven months to 88 years old.

— 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.