WUHAN — Here are the latest developments on the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in China:

— A total of 21 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 13 deaths were reported on the Chinese mainland on March 16. Of the deaths, 12 were in Hubei province and one in Shaanxi province.

Also on March 16, 930 people were discharged from hospital after recovery, while the number of severe cases decreased by 202 to 2,830.

The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 80,881 by the end of March 16, including 8,976 patients who were still being treated, 68,679 patients who had been discharged after recovery, and 3,226 people who died from the disease.

By the end of March 16, 157 confirmed cases including four deaths had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 11 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 67 in Taiwan including one death.

— Twenty imported cases were reported on the mainland on March 16. Among them, nine were reported in Beijing, three in Shanghai, three in Guangdong, and one in Zhejiang, Shandong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Shaanxi respectively. By the end of March 16, 143 imported cases had been reported.

— Central China's Hubei province reported one new confirmed case of COVID-19, bringing the total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the hard-hit province to 67,799.

As of March 16, Hubei had seen no newly confirmed COVID-19 cases for 12 consecutive days in its 16 cities and prefectures outside Wuhan.

The province also saw 893 patients discharged from hospital after recovery on March 16, bringing the total number of discharged patients in the province to 55,987.

— The first batch of medical assistance teams were scheduled to leave Hubei on March 17 as the epidemic situation has been greatly eased.

The 3,675 medical staff belonging to 41 medical teams from across China have assisted 14 temporary hospitals and seven designated hospitals in Wuhan.

— Over 1.5 million students in their final year of senior and junior high schools in China's Guizhou province and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region returned to school on March 16, as the coronavirus spread has been basically curbed.

— Hubei has started sending out workers after new infections petered out in most of its cities. The cities of Jingzhou, Huanggang, Xianning and Qianjiang have arranged chartered vehicles to send out thousands of migrant workers at a time when factories across China are rushing to resume work amid a labor crunch.