BEIJING -- Hu Lan (a pseudonym) was diagnosed with COVID-19 in February. Her husband had been urging her to take anti-viral medicines.

After finding herself in a hospital fully supported by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) doctors, Hu, 52, asked to be transferred.

"It's awkward to talk about this now," she recalled, "but the fact is after three or four days, I was recovering."

Hu's doctor said she took COVID-19 No.3, a TCM decoction recommended in national treatment guidelines. She also had massage therapy and practiced Baduanjin, a traditional Chinese exercise, to improve her appetite and reduce anxiety.

"At the end of the day, the goal of any medicine, Western or TCM, is to help sick people recover," said Liu Qingquan, president of Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and head of the only TCM temporary hospital in Wuhan.

The hospital, which opened on Feb. 14, has been the first TCM hospital for infectious diseases since the establishment of the People's Republic of China, drawing more than 200 staff from 20 TCM hospitals across five Chinese provinces.

At the hospital, every patient has tests like CT scans, blood counts and throat swabs. Their vital signs like oxygen saturation, heart rate and body temperature are also monitored.

Liu believed Western medicine and TCM complement each other. With four ways of TCM diagnosis -- looking, listening, questioning and taking the pulse -- doctors have a comprehensive view of the patient.

"We do at least three rounds every day, in the morning, afternoon and evening. Doctors check on patients and the expert team will have a group consultation," he said.

Patients usually have digestive symptoms and dry cough at the beginning. Seven to 10 days later, they present symptoms like a high fever, cough, fatigue and shortness of breath.

He said the tongue is an important diagnostic tool for evaluating stages of the disease. China's TCM experts agreed that COVID-19 is a cold and dampness-related epidemic illness.

A pale and moist tongue with a thick white coating is an indication of excessive dampness. As the disease develops, the color of tongue coating darkens to yellow and the tongue gets red or purple.

In his experience, it is a sign that the patient could get worse when the tongue coating gets thick, dry and cracked, even without an obvious cough and shortness of breath.

When a one-size-fits-all medication has yet to be developed, TCM looks at the needs of each individual and treats them accordingly to boost their immune system.

Outside the hospital, a smart mobile TCM pharmacy van with more than 300 herbal medicines can prepare three days' worth of medicines for six patients within five minutes.

As many patients show signs of anxiety, depression and loss of sleep, medical staff also give them massages and moxibustion (the burning of dried mugwort near points on the body), and practice traditional Chinese exercise like Baduanjin with the patients.

The hospital achieved the three "zeros": no patients testing positive again after being discharged; no mild cases becoming severe or critical; and no hospital staff infected. These were significant in containing the spread of the disease.

In 2017, Liu compiled and published the "TCM and Infectious Diseases" textbook. He plans to revise it based on his experience in Wuhan, updating with guidelines of how TCM treats COVID-19.