Eighteen patients with the novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan recovered and were released from a hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Thursday after receiving treatment that combined traditional Chinese medicine with modern medicine.

The patients range from 23 to 67 years old, and one of them was in critical condition, according to Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine. The patient in critical condition stayed in the hospital for 18 days, the longest of all patients, the hospital said.

Liu Qingquan, president of the Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, who guided the treatment, said that results of the patients have shown TCM can play an important role in treating patients with the new type of pneumonia, for which an effective Western medicine is still unavailable.

Medical workers in the hospital have gained experience in treating the disease by integrating TCM with Western medicine in the treatment of patients, and it is expected more patients with the infectious disease can be saved with the use of TCM, he said.