A total of 2,281 people have been taken to court by Chinese prosecutors for possible crimes relating to the novel coronavirus epidemic as of Tuesday, and among them, those using the outbreak to engage in fraud accounted for the largest proportion, according to China's top procuratorate.

"Of the alleged swindling, much of it happened online," Wang Songmiao, spokesperson of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Miao Shenming, a senior official with the top procuratorate, revealed that the number of people detained for epidemic-related offenses has been about five times as many as those detained for disturbing the prevention and control of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in 2003.

Besides fraud, online crimes also included those using the internet to steal personal information, invading computer systems or organizing gambling in cyberspace, the procuratorate said, adding the country has seen a more than 34 percent annual average growth of such online offenses in recent years.