BEIJING, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- China has stepped up efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Here are the latest developments:

-- China will help workers return to work and move hiring online to counter the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak on employment.

China's Ministry of Transport released a circular Tuesday to ensure safe and smooth transportation for migrant workers returning to work.

-- Production of medical and daily necessities such as masks and protective suits is steadily recovering in China to support the prevention and control of the epidemic.

More than 76 percent of mask production capacity in China's 22 provincial regions had been resumed by Monday and 77 percent of protective suit production had been resumed.

China is the world's largest mask producer, with more than 20 million masks made daily in normal times.

About 94.6 percent of the country's major grain production and processing firms have resumed production, as have 57.8 percent of the coal mines.

-- The first batch of 28 patients who had recovered from novel coronavirus pneumonia were discharged from a gymnasium-converted makeshift hospital on Tuesday afternoon in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.

-- The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country's biggest lender, said Tuesday that it has issued over 43 billion yuan (about 6.14 billion U.S. dollars) of loans to fight the novel coronavirus outbreak and help companies restore production since Jan. 24.

-- China's National Health Commission said on Tuesday that it received reports of 2,478 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 108 deaths on Monday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

By the end of Monday, a total of 1,016 people had died of the disease and 42,638 confirmed cases had been reported on the Chinese mainland.

-- A total of 3,996 patients infected with the virus had been discharged from hospital after recovery by the end of Monday.

-- Central China's Hubei Province, the hardest-hit province, reported 2,097 new confirmed injection cases and 103 new deaths on Monday. The figure is 521 fewer than the new confirmed cases reported on Sunday.

Hubei's capital city of Wuhan reported 1,552 new infections and 67 new deaths.

-- Beijing, Tianjin, Heilongjiang, Anhui and Henan each reported one new death.

New confirmed cases of novel coronavirus pneumonia outside Hubei Province totaled 381 on Monday, dropping for the seventh consecutive day.

-- Wuhan rolls out stricter measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus: suspected cases with mild symptoms should be quarantined and those with fever be treated nearby; all residential communities will be closed.

The city aims to finish testing all suspected cases of novel coronavirus infection by Tuesday.

-- The China Development Bank has granted emergency loans worth 20.4 billion yuan on Monday to enterprises in the manufacturing and purchasing of virus prevention and control supplies, daily necessities and constructors of the two makeshift hospitals in Wuhan.