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

— The last patient infected with COVID-19 in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has been cured and discharged from hospital on March 8. 

This has brought the total confirmed case in the region, as well as the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, to zero.

On the same day, the total confirmed case in East China's Anhui province has also come to zero, with the last three patients cured and discharged from hospital.

— As of 18:00 pm on March 8, five provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland have seen their total confirmed case reduced to zero, including Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Fujian and Anhui.

— A total of 28,000 female medical workers have been sent to the Central Chinese province of Hubei including its capital Wuhan to help battle the COVID-19 epidemic to date, accounting for two-thirds of the total number.

Up to now, China has sent 346 medical teams with 42,600 medical staff to Hubei, including 19,000 intensive care medical staff and medical personnel specializing in respiratory, infectious and psychological illnesses, among other fields.

— Two production lines of meltblown non-woven fabric went into operation in Beijing on March 8, according to Sinopec Beijing Yanshan Petrochemical Co Ltd.

They are expected to manufacture four metric tons of fabric that can be made into 1.2 million N95 respirators or six tons of fabric for 6 million surgical masks every day.

— Beijing reported two new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection on March 7, both of which were imported cases, from Italy and Spain, respectively.

— A total of 44 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 27 deaths were reported on March 7 on the Chinese mainland. The deaths were all reported in Hubei province.

Among the 44 new infections, 41 were in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province and epicenter of the outbreak. The other three cases outside Hubei were imported from outside the Chinese mainland, including two in Beijing and one in Gansu province. By the end of March 7, 63 imported cases had been reported.

— The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 80,695 by the end of March 7, including 20,533 patients who were still being treated, 57,065 patients who had been discharged after recovery, and 3,097 people who had died of the disease.

— China's transport system is expected to see millions of migrant workers finish their return to their workplaces in early April after a prolonged Spring Festival break due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The latest official data showed that 78 million migrant workers have already returned to their jobs. In the provinces of Guangdong and Zhejiang, 70 percent of migrant workers from other provinces had made it back to their workplaces.

— The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on March 7 that more will be done to ensure that the country's livestock and poultry businesses will meet their output and supply targets this year despite the novel coronavirus epidemic.

Since the outbreak, measures have been taken to boost production resumption and help firms in accessing feed and finding buyers.