With a registered population of over nine million residents and five million migrants, Wuhan City, the center of the pneumonia outbreak is facing a tough challenge.

Chinese health authorities said on Monday that the control and monitoring of the flow of people is the top priority of the community-based efforts to prevent and control the spread of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

Officials stressed that each community should be a unit to strengthen the monitoring of the movement and health condition of the people, especially those coming from Wuhan, the center of the coronavirus outbreak, to prevent epidemic import.

He Qinghua, an official with the National Health Commission, made the remarks at a press conference in Beijing.

"Home-based medical observation needs to be carried out for 14 days, and any abnormal situation must be reported in time in order to take corresponding prevention and control measures," said He.

He also highlighted the importance of the use of big data to improve the level of tracking.

(With input from Xinhua)