Medical team members say goodbye on a bus heading for the train station in Taiyuan, north China's Shanxi Province, Feb. 5, 2020. The third batch of a medical team comprised of 65 members in Shanxi left for Hubei on Wednesday to aid the novel coronavirus control efforts there. (Xinhua/Cao Yang)
BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- China has stepped up efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Here are the latest developments:
-- Chinese developers are working on the research and development of a robot that can replace nurses in conducting throat testing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus.
-- Seven patients confirmed to have been infected by the novel coronavirus, including two critical patients and a pregnant woman, were discharged Wednesday from a hospital in east China's Zhejiang Province after recovering.
Cured patients are congratulated by medical staff at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, Feb. 5, 2020. Seven pneumonia patients infected with the novel coronavirus were cured and discharged from the hospital on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Xu Yu)
-- Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, asked all residential communities, villages and enterprises to be managed in a closed way, denying the entry of external personnel and vehicles.
-- Beijing has so far adopted 179 thermal monitors in 35 subway stations to check the temperature of all passengers at entrances.
-- All schools in Shanghai 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 novel coronavirus epidemic.
-- Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province plans to convert another eight existing venues, including gymnasiums, exhibition centers and sports centers, into hospitals to receive patients infected with the novel coronavirus.
Workers are busy converting the Hongshan Gymnasium into a makeshift hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 4, 2020. (Xinhua/Feng Guodong)
-- More medical teams are rushing to Hubei Province to aid novel coronavirus control. A team of 138 medical workers from hospitals in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region flew to Hubei late Tuesday to join the fight against the epidemic.
-- Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has rolled out 20 measures to support small and medium-sized enterprises affected by coronavirus outbreak by reducing their burdens on loans, rent and social security payments.
-- The number of new suspected cases of the novel coronavirus infection on the Chinese mainland dropped for the second consecutive day on Tuesday.
-- A total of 892 patients infected with the novel coronavirus had been discharged from hospital after recovery by the end of Tuesday. ■
