China dispatches over 20,000 medics to aid anti-virus battle in Hubei

A medical team member poses for a photo before leaving for Xianning City of Hubei Province at Changshui International Airport in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, Feb. 12, 2020. A medical team comprised of some 350 medical members left for Xianning, central china's Hubei, on Wednesday. It's the third medical team sent from Yunnan to aid the novel coronavirus control efforts in Hubei. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

A total of 189 medical teams of over 21,569 medical workers had been sent to central China's Hubei Province to help combat the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak as of Wednesday, according to China's National Health Commission.

To further support medical work in Hubei, more than 1,000 doctors, 1,681 nurses and 213 experts from 17 provincial-level regions including Tianjin, Hebei and Shanxi, were dispatched on Wednesday to 16 cities and prefectures other than the provincial capital city of Wuhan, such as Enshi and the Shennongjia forestry district, to assist with the local anti-epidemic fight.