Transport authorities will limit the number of passengers using public transport to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus during the rush to return to work after the extended Spring Festival holiday.

Ministry of Transport spokesman Cai Tuanjie told a news conference on Thursday that as people return to their workplaces and students prepare to go back to school, the travel peak will arrive around Saturday and will last longer than in previous years.

As of Wednesday, the total number of Spring Festival passenger trips had slumped nearly 35 percent to about 1.32 billion. The country will handle about 400 million trips during the rest of the Spring Festival travel rush, a 70 percent decrease from the same period last year, he said.

This year's Spring Festival travel rush started on Jan 10 and runs through Feb 18.

With the number of return trips plunging, the transport authorities will reduce the number of passengers on various forms of public transport and guide them to sit apart from each other to avoid cross-infection, Cai said, adding that vehicles, trains and planes should set up isolation areas to quarantine suspected cases of novel coronavirus infection.

The transport authorities will work closely with public security and health departments to check the body temperatures of passengers at transport terminals, he said.