A total of 141 confirmed novel coronavirus pneumonia patients in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province, were treated with traditional Chinese medicine in addition to Western medicine as of midnight on Feb 17, according to statistics from the Ningbo municipal administration of traditional Chinese medicine.

The figure accounted for 96.5 percent of all NCP patients in the city.

A panel of TCM experts was formed in Ningbo soon after the outbreak to explore what role TCM can play in fighting the virus.

Traditional Chinese-Western hybrid treatments have been applied in all hospitals at the municipal and district level, according to  He Zhiliang, vice president of the Ningbo Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, who is currently chairing the panel of experts.

TCM has proved effective in helping relieve symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, and poor appetite and in facilitating recovery.

Yu Jing, a TCM doctor at the Ningbo Huamei Hospital of the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that TCM treatment has a synergistic effect on patients and that all of the hospital's isolation wards are serviced by TCM doctors responsible for prescribing medication based on the daily symptoms of individuals.

The hospital has also increased the concentration of a 300 ml decoction, reducing its volume to 150 ml and making it easier for patients to drink while reducing vomiting.

Li Shuyun, head of the city's TCM panel, said that killing the virus should be prioritized in the treatment of NCP, but TCM has a good synergistic effect which might be helpful in preventing a patient from progressing to a critical stage. However, more research is needed on the subject.

Meanwhile, local medical experts have rolled out preventive TCM prescriptions based on national and provincial recommendations, and more than 100,000 doses of decoction have been distributed to medics on the frontlines of the fight against the virus.

Traditional medicinal herbs such as astragalus and huoxiang have been added to the decoction, since it is relatively humid in Ningbo, He said.

Ningbo had reported 156 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus as of midnight on Feb 19. A total of 91 people with the virus had recovered and been discharged from the hospital.