WUHAN, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- China has sent 450 military medical staff, including professionals who have experience in the fight against SARS or Ebola, to the novel coronavirus hardest-hit city of Wuhan.

The medics, in three teams sent by medical universities of the army, navy and air force of the People's Liberation Army, arrived in Wuhan by military aircraft on Friday night.

The teams, composed of experts in respiratory health, infectious diseases, hospital infection control and intensive care unit, will be dispatched to the Wuhan hospitals with large numbers of novel coronavirus-related pneumonia patients, according to the military authorities.

Chinese health authorities announced Saturday that 1,287 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus, including 237 in critical conditions, had been reported in the country by the end of Friday.

The pneumonia situation had resulted in 41 deaths, the National Health Commission said.