As one of the country's tens of thousands of medical professionals who rushed to Wuhan to help fight the novel coronavirus epidemic, Yuan Yadong said their efforts were for a single goal－for all people in the country to able to take off their masks and breathe freely.

On Jan 27, with about 150 medical professionals from Hebei province, Yuan's team took over the work of treating infected patients at Wuhan No 7 Hospital.

"For weeks, we had about 190 patients hospitalized, with more than half of them showing severe symptoms or in critical condition," Yuan said. By Saturday, 159 patients had been discharged.

"Fears about the epidemic are reasonable. As a doctor, however, we should be more courageous," Yuan said. "We should believe that our safety can be guaranteed under effective protection and lives can also be saved via scientific treatment."