China has stepped up efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Here are the latest developments:
-- Chinese health authorities said they received reports of 5,090 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 121 deaths on Thursday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
-- The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland had reached 63,851 by the end of Thursday, and 1,380 people had died of the disease. A total of 6,723 people had been discharged from the hospital after recovery.
-- Chinese health authorities said 1,716 medical staff had been infected with the novel coronavirus by Feb. 11, accounting for 3.8 percent of the overall confirmed cases in the country. Among them, six people had died from the virus, accounting for 0.4 percent of the country's total deaths.
-- China has developed convalescent plasma to treat patients who are infected with the novel coronavirus, according to the China National Biotec Group. The company said they have collected plasma from some recovered patients to prepare therapeutic products including convalescent plasma and immune globulin.
-- North China's Tianjin Municipality introduced a ban Friday on the eating of wild animals.
-- A nine-month-old baby infected with the novel coronavirus was discharged form a Beijing hospital on Friday after recovery.
-- Hubei Province reported 4,823 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection and 116 new deaths on Thursday, bringing the total confirmed cases in the hard-hit province to 51,986.
The new confirmed cases included 3,095 clinically diagnosed cases and the new deaths included eight who were clinically diagnosed.
The capital city of Wuhan reported 3,910 new infections and 88 new deaths on Thursday.
-- An expert from Wuhan called upon cured patients who had been infected with the virus to donate plasma at hospitals as antibodies have been identified in the plasma of some patients.
-- Chinese authorities on Thursday stressed differentiated measures for different regions to fight the novel coronavirus outbreak and demanded efforts to improve patient treatment and expedite research on drugs at a high-level meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.
-- Vice Premier Hu Chunhua called for all-out efforts to ensure stable employment amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.
