TCM hospitals at the forefront of battle against novel coronavirus outbreak

Traditional Chinese medicine hospitals in Central China's Hubei province, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, had provided more than 4,400 quarantine beds as of Saturday afternoon, and received 523 confirmed patients and 2,158 suspected patients, the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine said on Monday.

In other areas, TCM doctors had provided treatment to 3,361 patients as of the end of Saturday, and more than half of the patients had showed signs of improvement in their conditions, the administration said. Seventy-four had been cured and released from the hospital, it said.

In Wuhan, Hubei's capital, 10 TCM hospitals received 260 hospitalized patients and 1,025 suspected cases as of Saturday afternoon, according to the administration.

To help treat novel coronavirus patients in Hubei province, the administration organized medical teams comprised of primarily TCM doctors from across China, who arrived in Wuhan on Jan 27.