BEIJING — China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism has launched online public culture and tourism services to assist in the fight against the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The online public culture service, which aims to enrich the cultural life of the public, will enable people to enjoy online exhibitions of museums across the country, browse over 30 virtual exhibition halls of the National Museum of China, search information of historical relics of the Palace Museum and attend open courses of the National Library of China, according to the ministry.

People can also acquire travel tips for other countries and authoritative tourism information during the epidemic prevention and control period through the ministry's online tourism services.

Both services can be attained on the country's e-government service platform, the official website of the ministry, or via an official app developed by the ministry.

By the end of Feb 2, the novel coronavirus outbreak had seen 17,205 confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland, 361 deaths, and a total of 475 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery.