The "one person, one treatment" medical care plan has cured 211 of 334 coronavirus patients in Shanghai, pushing the local recovery rate for novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) to over 60 percent, according to the Shanghai Health Commission.

In Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center (SPHCC), a designated hospital for all coronavirus patients in Shanghai (except for 10 child patients in a pediatric hospital), the medical director detailed their experience, methods and facilities.

The treatment is supported by multidisciplinary care. Shen Yinzhong, head of the medical administration department of SPHCC, said, "It's a complicated issue to decide the drugs to give to patients because treatment involves multiple organs and organ damage. The coronavirus infection also aggravates such damage. That's why Shanghai medical care applied multidisciplinary treatment from the very beginning."

The multidisciplinary team consists of best medical staff in Shanghai including doctors from the intensive care unit (ICU), an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation group, a continuous renal replacement therapies group, a respiratory therapy group and a mental health group.

"We are taking a leading role in virus detection. Also, we apply a combination of Chinese and Western medicine in each patient's clinical treatment. Because of the individual differences in bodily health, we guarantee a medical group for each severe patient," said Lu Hongzhou, professor of SPHCC and member of China's expert group for coronavirus medical treatment. "Traditional Chinese medicine had been having a positive effect on fighting the coronavirus. For example, two patients with high fever, constipation and abdominal distension have gotten better after enema therapy, a traditional Chinese medicine treatment."

Constructed in 2004, the facilities of SPHCC are designated for epidemic disease patients. It now has 327 beds with negative pressure equipment housed in 4 buildings, three of which provide accommodation for patients.

The negative pressure technique helps to prevent cross-contamination from room to room. While fresh air flows into the room, the air that a patient breathes out will be filtered through an apparatus with a membrane, which will be burnt as soon as the patient is discharged.

The Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center is undergoing an expansion to make another 200 beds available.