"For confirmed parturients, breastfeeding is not recommended. Bottle-feeding is better," said Zhao Yangyu, senior obstetrician of Peking University Third Hospital, at a conference organized by the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council.  

Existing data shows that the novel coronavirus nucleic acid was not detected in breast milk. But the number of such confirmed cases is quite small, which makes it hard to say anything for sure. 

However, there is a risk of infection by contact during breastfeeding. Therefore, bottle-feeding is advised.  

People have come up with the idea of extracting the milk first and then eliminating the virus by boiling the milk, since the virus is highly sensitive to high temperature, according to a study by a team from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. 

The study shows that temperature significantly affects COVID-19 transmission, but there has been no research on whether heating up mother's milk can kill the virus completely. At the same time, some nutrients in the milk will be lost after heating.

So when can a woman diagnosed with COVID-19 start breastfeeding her baby? The answer: when she is cured after being discharged from the hospital, has been quarantined for over 14 days, and doesn't show any symptom of the disease upon return visit.

Read more: Answer Bank: How can other countries learn from China's fight against COVID-19?