The control measures of the novel coronavirus will start to show clear results around Feb 8 as the latent phase of the disease will pass, the chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said.

"We will see obvious results around Feb 8, since the prevention measures have been enforced since Jan 23," Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese CDC said during an interview with People's Daily on Wednesday.

Experts said previously the latent phase of the disease falls within 14 days.

"We need to minimize the number of infected people from Wuhan spreading the disease elsewhere,down to zero. It matters to China and the world," Zeng said.

What China is fighting now isn't only to contain the novel coronavirus, but also to the source of infection, he added. "Some patients haven't got pneumonia yet but they are the sources of infection. That's why we've updated the diagnosis standard four times to keep up with the development of the virus."