A total of 1,400 military medics have arrived in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei province and epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, on Thursday, joining the counter-epidemic efforts.

They are part of the third group of medical personnel from the People's Liberation Army to assist in Wuhan's fight against the novel coronavirus pneumonia and are tasked with curing infected patients at two local hospitals, according to a statement from the military.

The PLA Air Force used six Y-20s, three Il-76s and two Y-9s transport aircraft to carry those medics as well as medical supplies from seven cities across the nation including Urumqi, Shenyang and Chengdu.

This has been the largest nonmilitary operation of the Air Force's transport fleet and also marked the first nonmilitary deployment of the domestically developed Y-20, one of the world's largest strategic heavy-lift transport planes.

Another 1,200 medics, the rest in the third group, will be sent to Wuhan in the coming days in accordance with local hospitals' requirement and temporary hospitals' construction developments, the statement said, noting the deployment of the third group was approved by President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

The first two groups, totaling 1,400 medics, have been working at a local temporary hospital for more than 10 days.