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

— The National Health Commission said on Feb 9 it received reports of 2,656 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 89 deaths on Feb 8 from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland had reached 37,198 by the end of Feb 8 and 811 people had died of the disease.

— A total of 2,649 patients infected with the novel coronavirus had been discharged from hospital after recovery by the end of Feb 8, the commission announced on Feb 9.

— Central China's Hubei, the hardest-hit province, reported 2,147 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 81 new deaths on Feb 8, local health authorities said on Feb 9. The figure is 694 less compared with the new confirmed cases reported in the previous day.

— The mortality rate of the virus in Hubei stood at 2.88 percent, with the city of Tianmen and Wuhan having the highest death rates at 5.08 percent and 4.06 percent, respectively.

— The newly-built Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan, the second in the city replicating Beijing's SARS treatment model, received on Feb 8 the first batch of patients infected with the virus. The two makeshift hospitals — Leishenshan (Thunder God Mountain) and Huoshenshan (Fire God Mountain), together can accommodate 2,600 beds.

— China released an application guide to solicit research and development projects on rapid test kits for the novel coronavirus. The on-site quick testing equipment and reagents should be able to identify confirmed infection among suspected patients within 1.5 hours to help prevent and control the epidemic. Research institutes, universities and enterprises can submit applications to the Ministry of Science and Technology from Feb 8 to 13.