BEIJING, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese mobile phone users can use text messages as proof of their travel history in the past 14 days, as many are returning to their work amid the fight against the novel coronavirus.

As of Tuesday noon, more than 50 million inquiries have been made, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Three major telecommunications operators - China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom - now provide free text message inquiry services for mobile phone users across the country.

Users can type "CXMYD" and send it to 10001, 10086 or 10010 to receive corresponding results, which can be used as travel certificates.

A total of 1.6 billion mobile phone users in China can inquire about the places they have visited for more than 4 hours in the previous 14 days through the short message services, according to the ministry.