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

— Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, arrived in Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, on March 10 for an inspection of the epidemic prevention and control work in Hubei province and its capital city Wuhan.

— Chinese mainland reported 19 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 17 deaths on March 9. The 17 deaths were all in Hubei province.

The number of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases fell below 20 for the first time in Wuhan.

— The Chinese mainland on March 9 reported two new imported COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of imported cases to 69.

Of the two new imported cases, one was reported in Beijing and the other in South China's Guangdong province.

— A total of 1,297 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospital after recovery on March 9 on the Chinese mainland.

In total, 59,897 patients had been discharged from hospital by the end of March 9.

— Hubei province announced on March 10 it will adopt a differentiated personnel control policy, allowing healthy people from medium- and low-risk areas to travel within the province.

— China's consumer inflation slightly moderated in February, but prices remained at a high level due to a supply shock brought by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

— Construction has gradually resumed on housing and public infrastructure projects in China as local regions ramped up efforts to bring workers back to work while containing the epidemic.

— Courts across China are doing their jobs via non-contact means amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, and about 59.3 percent of the cases were heard by video during the epidemic.