A staff member gets disinfected before taking part in a health screening campaign at Qingheju Community in Qingshan District of Wuhan, capital city of central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 18, 2020. (Xinhua/Cheng Min)

BEIJING, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- China has stepped up efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Here are the latest developments:

-- Chinese health authority said it received reports of 397 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 109 deaths on Friday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Among the deaths, 106 were in Hubei Province and one in Hebei Province, Shanghai and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, respectively.

-- The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland had reached 76,288 by the end of Friday, and 2,345 people had died of the disease.

-- China's daily number of newly cured and discharged novel coronavirus patients has surpassed that of new confirmed infections for the fourth consecutive day. Friday saw 2,393 people walk out of hospital after recovery, much higher than the number of the same day's new confirmed infections, which was 397.

A total of 20,659 patients infected with the novel coronavirus had been discharged from hospital after recovery by the end of Friday.

A recovered coronavirus patient "hugs" medical staff without body contact before leaving Leishenshan (Thunder God Mountain) Hospital in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 18, 2020. (Photo by Gao Xiang/Xinhua)

-- Hubei Province, center of the novel coronavirus outbreak, reported 366 new confirmed cases and 106 new deaths on Friday. The latest report brought the total confirmed cases in the hard-hit province to 63,454.

-- The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Friday that the WHO-led team of international experts currently in China to investigate the novel coronavirus outbreak will travel to Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic, on Saturday.

-- Chinese researchers have released the first pathology report on the novel coronavirus disease, analysing its impact on a patient's lungs, liver and heart by studying the biopsy samples at autopsy.

-- China's auto sales and production have taken a hard hit from the novel coronavirus outbreak, but industry insiders expect a rebound in April if the epidemic is gradually brought under control.

The retail sales of passenger vehicles plunged 92 percent on an annual basis in the first 16 days of February. ■