BEIJING, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) helped reduce the death rate of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic in Wuhan, the once hardest virus-hit city in central China, a Chinese medical expert said Friday.

Two employees in a TCM store in Dongyang, East China's Zhejiang Province, measure herbal medicine on October 31, 2018. (Photo: VCG)

Ye Yongan, the Party Chief of Dongzhimen Hospital of Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, made the remarks at a press conference in Beijing.

TCM experts have worked out three versions of treatment protocols for severe and critically ill COVID-19 patients, and recommended four prescriptions and eight injections to prevent severe cases from deteriorating into critical conditions, said Ye, adding that critically ill patients also improved into moderate cases with such prescriptions and injections, said Ye.

More than 90 percent of the COVID-19 patients saw relief in fever, fatigue, cough, and asthma, the common symptoms for the disease, after receiving TCM therapy or combined treatment of TCM and western medicine, Ye added.

The usage of TCM in treating COVID-19 cases in virus-hit Hubei Province exceeded 90 percent, according to Tu Jinwen, leader of the TCM expert group in Hubei province. Enditem