BEIJING — China has stepped up efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Here are the latest developments:

— Chinese health authorities have sent more than 11,000 medics, including the country's best ICU staff, to the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

— The genome sequences of five 2019 novel coronavirus strains on the National Genomics Data Center have been synchronized and shared with an American database.

— Beijing on Feb 7 published the number of patients suspected to be infected with the novel coronavirus for the first time. As of Feb 6, Beijing reported 157 suspected cases and 297 confirmed cases of infection.

— A 91-year-old patient has been cured in the city of Yichang, Central China's Hubei province, on Feb 7. The patient is the oldest cured patient infected with the virus in China so far.

— All schools in southern China's Guangdong province are required to delay the opening of the 2020 spring semester until the end of February. The resumption date will be confirmed later in accordance with the development of the fight against the epidemic.

— The National Supervisory Commission has decided to dispatch an inspection group to Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, to thoroughly investigate issues related to Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist who passed away early Feb 7 after being infected with the virus.

— The genome sequence of the novel coronavirus strain separated from pangolins was 99 percent identical to that from infected people, indicating pangolins may be an intermediate host of the virus, a study has found.

— No new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection had been reported in Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region by Feb 6 since the region reported its first case on Jan 30.

— Starting from Feb 7, Shanghai will put individuals on a credit blacklist for concealing novel coronavirus-related symptoms or violating quarantine.

— North China's Tianjin municipality has asked all residential communities to strictly control the flow of people as part of epidemic prevention and control efforts.

— Hubei province, center of the novel coronavirus outbreak, is now able to conduct up to 10,000 nucleic acid tests per day.

— Chinese authorities asked businesses outside Hubei province to resume operation in an orderly manner while continuing to fight the novel coronavirus outbreak.

— Chinese health authorities received reports of 3,143 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 73 deaths on Feb 6 from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.