WUHAN, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Before entering the exhibition center-turned hospital for his shift, doctor Cao Wei attached a QR code to his protective suit.

By scanning it, patients can access a WeChat group in which they can consult medical experts on whatever is on their mind.

"We call ourselves 'a walking QR code,' which has aroused patients' attention," Cao said with a smile.

Cao, from a hospital in east China's Shandong Province, signed up to join the medical team to Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak in Hubei Province. He now works in the temporary hospital of Hanyang, which was transformed from the city's international conference and exhibition center to take in infected patients with mild symptoms.

By the end of Sunday, the overall confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection on the Chinese mainland had reached 77,150, according to national health authorities.

Wuhan, where the number of infected cases has surpassed 46,000, has activated 13 temporary hospitals converted from existing gymnasiums and exhibition centers and plans to open another 19, bringing the total reserved beds in temporary hospitals to 30,000 by Feb. 25.

Cao said the patients, who were isolated to avoid passing on the disease to their family, were vulnerable and needed extra care in addition to medical treatment.

Besides the QR code and his name on the protective suit, Cao wrote a few more words -- a native of Hubei.

"I believe this identity will help bridge the gap with the patients," he said.

He remembered how he persuaded a depressed woman to start talking.

"She just sat there alone in silence, lowering her head. I told her as a local, I felt for her," he recalled. The woman then said in tears that her mother just died of the epidemic two days ago, and her son was also confirmed infected.

"I just kept listening before encouraging her to pull herself together," he said.

Such communication in the encapsulating protective gear was not easy.

"I had to shout to make myself heard while keeping a distance of at least one meter, and three hours of talking was exhausting," said Cao, adding that even a simple sip of water was impossible.

To save protective gear, which was in severely short supply in Wuhan, many medics like Cao did not eat or drink before and during their shifts, because they had to throw away and replace their protective suits if they went to the toilet. Some of his colleagues even wore diapers.

Cao felt comforted as the woman's condition improved both physically and mentally.

"The other day when I was patrolling around checking on the patients, she was eating an orange," he recalled. "On seeing I was approaching, she engulfed it right away and put on her mask for fear of infecting me."

At the dorm, Cao continued to communicate with the patients via the WeChat group after his shift. Patients asked questions about nucleic acid testing and whether they needed to wear masks while sleeping at night, to which Cao answered one by one.

Li Yanzhi, head of the psychological counseling group of the temporary hospital, said more than 50 patients had joined the WeChat group chat.

"Based on the information they shared in the chat, we are able to provide more accurate treatment and counseling services," she said.

Lyu Yongtao, head of the Shandong Provincial Third Hospital and also the leader of a medical team sent to Wuhan, said sometimes words work better than medicine.

"The patients will recover much faster if we properly attend to their mental condition," he said.