25,633 medics sent to battle COVID-19 in Hubei

A total of 25,633 medics have been sent to China's Hubei province, the epicentre of the deadly coronavirus, to help combat the disease, a senior official with the National Health Commission said on Saturday.

"The total number of medical workers has far exceeded than that during the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, and we did it at a much faster speed," Xinhua news agency quoted Wang Hesheng, deputy head of the Commission, as saying.

Wang, also a member of the standing committee of the Hubei provincial Party committee, noted that the figure excluded medical staff sent by the military.

Three mobile P3 laboratories were also dispatched to the epicentre for epidemic control, Wang said.

Of the medical workers, 20,374 are now working in Wuhan, he added.

Medics have made great sacrifices and braved the virus outbreak on the front line, Wang said, expressing respect to the medical workers.

As of Saturday, the death toll due to the virus in the Chinese mainland increased to 1,523, with a total of 66,492 confirmed cases, according to the Commission.

Outside China, there has been three deaths -- Hong Kong, the Philippines and Japan.