Teachers and students staying in areas with a major novel coronavirus outbreak will return to their schools in South China's Guangdong province for the new semester at different times, depending on their departments, grades and classes.

Students from kindergarten to university in Guangdong number 24.5 million, including 2.19 million at 154 colleges and universities, said Jing Lihu, director of the provincial Education Department, at a press conference in Guangzhou city on Tuesday.

Among college and university students, 300,150 are from outside Guangdong, including 29,290 from Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak.

There are 61,172 teachers from Hubei who work in primary and middle schools, as well as at colleges and universities, data from the department showed.

Colleges and universities in Guangdong are required to set aside separate venues for health observation, the educational authority said.

Meanwhile, to care for people's psychological health in the epidemic, South China Normal University, which has strong psychological academic capacity, has formed a professional team of more than 200 teachers and students.

They have provided psychological counseling services to about 1,000 people, including 30 who urgently needed help, Jing said.