NANJING, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Five medical teams with 958 members from east China's Jiangsu Province were sent to the virus-hit Hubei Province on Sunday to support the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus epidemic.

The teams, from cities including Nanjing, Wuxi and Suzhou with two team leaders from the provincial health commission, mainly consist of medical personnel from departments of respiratory, critical care and intensive medicine, as well as clinicians of internal medicine and nursing staff.

They are expected to take over 16 critical care zones in a local hospital together with 11 other medical teams coming from other places across the country.

Jiangsu had previously sent four batches of medical teams to Hubei, mainly in cities of Wuhan and Huangshi, with a total of 480 professionals including doctors, nurses, healthcare experts and testing staff.