Over 78 million migrant workers have returned to their workplaces as China meticulously expands business operations amid the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak, said Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security on Saturday.

Shang Jianhua, head of the ministry's migrant workers' affairs department, said at the press conference, "About 60 percent of the migrant workers who travelled back to their hometowns during the Spring Festival holiday have returned to work."

The return journey of the migrant workers has been delayed this year as a result of the epidemic. With the multiple prevention and control measures taken, however, they have now been gradually going back to the cities in an orderly manner, he said.

A large number of the returned trips were bound for the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, he said, adding that provinces of Guangdong and Zhejiang, among the best in terms of returning worker volume, have seen 70 percent of migrant workers coming back to work, followed by Jiangsu province with nearly 60 percent.

With many migrant workers still looking to travel back to workplaces, the country's top railway operator will step up efforts to better serve their scattered trip destinations and travel times.

Huang Xin, head of passenger transport department under China State Railway Group, said, "The company will make full use of its 12306 online ticket-booking platform to strengthen the monitoring and analysis of passenger flows, especially those between major labor output places and input place."

The railway authority will adjust its railway operating plan on daily basis to fully meet the needs of workers' return trips, he said, adding that it will also ramp up disinfection and health check efforts.