WUHAN — A central government group to guide the epidemic control work in Central China's Hubei province requires intensified measures to prevent and control the novel coronavirus epidemic and race against time to win the battle.

Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan, who leads the group, stressed implementing plans made by the leading group of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus outbreak and racing against time to combat the disease and resolutely curbing the spread of the epidemic, according to an official statement.

Hubei, especially its capital city Wuhan, is the center of China's novel coronavirus control work and must take epidemic prevention and control as the most important work, Sun said.

She urged local authorities to "take more decisive and effective measures" and strictly classify and carry out centralized treatment or isolation of infections, suspected cases, fever patients and close contacts, saying that organizations at all levels and the general public should be fully mobilized to fight the outbreak.

Under the group's guidance, Wuhan has started transforming sites such as convention centers and gymnasiums into "mobile hospitals," of which three have been transformed and provide a total of 3,800 beds to treat patients with mild symptoms, according to the statement.

Organized by the central government, a number of medical rescue teams, three mobile P3 laboratories and 2,000 nursing professionals from major hospitals in 20 provinces arrived in Wuhan on Feb 4 and will treat patients starting Feb 5, the statement said.