A total of 1,245 of confirmed novel coronavirus patients in South China's Guangdong province, or about 94 percent of all the patients, had received traditional Chinese medicine treatment apart from western medicine methods by Tuesday, TCM experts said at a press conference in Guangzhou on Wednesday.

And TCM proved effective in 89 percent of the cases, they added.

A provincial TCM expert team was established soon after the outbreak and the first edition of the provincial TCM treatment plan was issued on Jan 24, said Xu Qingfeng, deputy director of the Guangdong Health Commission.

Doctors drew on both ancient and modern TCM epidemic disease treatment experiences and the TCM plan worked significantly on patients, such as in helping to relieve fever, coughing, shortness of breath, fatigue and poor appetite, said Lin Lin, director of the Pulmonary Disease Department of the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine.

Patients who received TCM treatment experienced relatively stable condition and seemed not to decline into serious condition easily, she said.

TCM is effective in quickly improving clinical symptoms, strengthening patients' body resistance, curbing cytokine storm and improving defecation, playing a comprehensive role, said Tan Xinghua, director of the TCM Department of Guangzhou Eighth People's Hospital.

Apart from medicines, TCM treatment also included acupuncture, ear acupuncture point application and Baduanjin (a fitness practice with a history of 800 years), improving patients' sleep and facilitating their recovery, said Chen Ning, director of the Pulmonary Disease Department of the Guangdong Second Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital.

TCM treatment of epidemic diseases, which has drawn on ancient classic books, has kept progressing. For example, some TCMs used this time are different from those used during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Symptoms (SARS) outbreak 17 years ago, said Lin Peizheng, a professor-level doctor at First Affiliated Hospital Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine.

"I'm confident of TCM treatment in novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia," he said.

Meanwhile, in Zhangzhou, East China's Fujian province, TCM has been applied in the treatment of all novel coronavirus patients, with significant effect, according to Wu Weihong, vice-mayor of the city.