BEIJING, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- China has stepped up efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Here are the latest developments:

-- A female doctor at a Wuhan hospital that receives patients infected with the novel coronavirus died from the virus on Sunday, according to the hospital.

Xia Sisi, 29, a gastroenterology physician, became infected while working at the Union Jiangbei Hospital of Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province. She was hospitalized on Jan. 19 and later transferred to Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University on Feb. 7 after her condition worsened.

She died Sunday morning despite doctors' all-out efforts to save her life.

-- China's daily number of newly cured and discharged novel coronavirus patients has surpassed that of new confirmed infections for the fifth consecutive day, according to the National Health Commission Sunday.

Saturday saw 2,230 people walk out of hospital after recovery, much higher than the number of the same day's new confirmed infections, which was 648, figures from the commission showed.

-- A drone-based multi-functional monitoring system has been used to help control the novel coronavirus and offer early warnings, according to its developer.

Developed by a team from the Beijing Institute of Technology and a drone company in Tianjin, the system is mainly composed of drones, broadcasting tools, ground control and an image processing platform.

-- A smart robot that uses 5G technology and thermal imaging has been employed in the city of Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, to help control the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The mobile robot, equipped with functions like face recognition and temperature measurement, can simultaneously track 32 targets while patrolling, according to its developer.

-- Police across China have launched investigations into illegal business operations such as hoarding and price gouging as China continues its crackdown on crimes related to the novel coronavirus epidemic.

-- Chinese health authority Sunday said it received reports of 648 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 97 deaths on Saturday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Among the deaths, 96 were in Hubei Province and one in Guangdong Province, according to the National Health Commission.

-- The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland had reached 76,936 by the end of Saturday, and 2,442 people had died of the disease.

-- A total of 22,888 patients infected with the novel coronavirus had been discharged from hospital after recovery by the end of Saturday, the health authority said Sunday.

-- Hubei Province, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, reported 630 new confirmed cases and 96 new deaths on Saturday, the provincial health commission said Sunday.

The latest report brought the total confirmed cases in the hard-hit province to 64,084.

-- Supply of daily necessities has been stable in China, including the epidemic-hit Hubei Province, despite the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak that heavily impacted daily life and factory activities, an official with the Ministry of Commerce said Saturday.

-- The State Council has issued a guideline on strengthening enterprises' measures preventing and containing the novel coronavirus spread in a bid to promote work and production resumption in an orderly manner.

Differentiated moves should be taken in accordance with local conditions to enhance health management, said the document released Friday by the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council.