BEIJING, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank on Saturday decided to remove the upper limit on small bank batch payments to meet transfer demands of larger scales.

The People's Bank of China said in an online statement that the new policy will be effective from Jan. 25 to Jan. 30 to ensure efficient and timely transfer of large-scale funds.

The move came a day after the central bank's statement on Friday to raise the limit to 500 million yuan (about 72.4 million U.S. dollars) to support the fight against the pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus.

The removal of the limit is aimed at further enhancing transfer efficiency, the central bank said.

Chinese health authorities announced Saturday that 1,287 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), including 237 in critical conditions, had been reported in the country by the end of Friday.

The country is mobilizing medical resources nationwide to aid central China's Wuhan, the center of the 2019-nCoV outbreak, to control the epidemic.