Experts from a mental protection group also joined the team to help. Yang Yuan, a psychological expert of Tongji Hospital, provided support and counseling to patients via a remote video calling platform.

A patient surnamed Ren says, "I felt so grateful that the doctors would listen to my negative feelings. I felt much better after speaking out."

"Difficulties like the surging number of patients, lack of sickbeds, people and supplies did not frighten us, but enriched our sense of mission and responsibility," says Wu Jing, Party secretary of Tongji Hospital.

"With Party members as the main strength, the small teams made concerted efforts to conquer difficulties in treating severe patients, and saving lives," she adds.

Speaking about cooperation between the local groups and support teams from other places, He Fan, a member of the kidney team, says: "The support team includes many medical workers specializing in cardiology, respiration and from the ICU. We learned from each other when we worked together, and communicated a lot to reach consensus on therapies we provided to patients, so that we saved a lot of time on their follow-up treatment."

On April 26, all of the patients were discharged from Tongji Hospital, and it was reopened after being disinfected.

During the period, the hospital treated 3,539 people, of which 3,201 were classed as severe cases, with the majority of them being successfully saved.

"After the fight against coronavirus, we will increasingly cherish our work and respect life in the future," says Zhou.