BEIJING, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- China has stepped up efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Here are the latest developments:

-- A total of 163 passengers on a flight from the Republic of Korea to the city of Weihai, east China's Shandong Province, are now under medical observation after five passengers were reported to have a fever.

-- A total of 1,029 people have been prosecuted in China over criminal offenses related to the COVID-19 epidemic. China's prosecutors have been involved in the investigation and evidence collection of 6,144 epidemic-related criminal offenses that concerned 8,243 people in total.

They intervened and handled 383 cases of causing transmission of the novel coronavirus due to refusal to take preventive measures, 895 cases of manufacturing or selling fake products, and 144 cases of illegal business operations.

-- China has not seen any further spread of the novel coronavirus in its prison system apart from the confirmed cases in five prisons in Hubei, Zhejiang and Shandong provinces.

As of Tuesday, those five prisons had reported 555 confirmed cases, including four in critical conditions.

-- China has assisted a total of 250,000 outbound Chinese group tourists to return home since the outbreak of COVID-19 through chartered flights or by altering flight tickets.

-- The National Health Commission said Wednesday it received reports of 406 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 52 deaths on Tuesday from 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland, bringing the overall confirmed cases and total deaths on the mainland to 78,064 and 2,715, respectively.

-- Hubei Province, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, reported 401 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 52 new deaths on Tuesday.

-- China's daily new confirmed cases of COVID-19 outside Hubei Province, epicenter of the outbreak, dropped to five on Tuesday.

-- China's daily number of newly cured and discharged novel coronavirus patients has surpassed that of new infections for the eighth consecutive day.

Tuesday saw 2,422 people on the Chinese mainland walk out of hospital after recovery. A total of 29,745 patients infected with the novel coronavirus had been discharged from hospital by the end of Tuesday.

-- Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan on Tuesday called for all-out efforts to treat medical workers who were infected with the coronavirus.

-- China's Ministry of Justice calls for more convenient and effective public legal services to protect migrant workers' interests amid the outbreak.