The story of a 90-year-old mother taking care of her 64-year-old son infected with the novel coronavirus (2019-nCov) has melted the hearts of many netizens on Chinese social media.

The story, firstly unveiled by a doctor surnamed Lin on his China's Twitter-like Weibo account, has drawn many people's concern on social media. So far, the post has been reposted for over 160,000 times and garnered nearly 5,000 comments.

Due to the shortage of beds in hospitals, the 90-year-old mother accompanied her ill son in the observation ward for five days in Wuhan Union Hospital in central China's Wuhan City, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, before her son was eventually moved into the isolation ward and received further treatment on February 2, reported Chutian Metropolis Daily.

For most of the time, people saw her sitting beside the bed of her son and holding his hand. She only took a nap when she was tired and had some instant noodles when she was hungry.

According to the report, her daughter-in-law and grandson were abroad and her daughter was trapped at home. She was afraid of her daughter getting infected, so she came to the hospital alone and looked after her son. She said she was not scared of anything since she's already 90 years old.

The virus test confirmed the 90-year-old mother was not infected. Before she left for home, she wrote a letter to encourage her son, which reads: "Son, stay strong and defeat the disease!"

The mother's love and strength has melted the hearts of numerous netizens and fueled many comments on social media.

"I cried. Please stay safe. Wish the old mother and her family can pull through all the difficulties," commented Weibo user @maladou.

"Being old is not the reason for not being scared, it's mother's love," said Weibo user @miemieddxiaokeaiguagua.

As of Thursday, a total of 31,161 cases of the novel coronavirus were confirmed on the Chinese mainland, with 636 deaths, according to China's National Health Commission.