On April 9, a joyful Wang Xin, an 87-year-old man who had been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus pneumonia, walked out of the east branch of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei province and also the previous epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in China.

Wang Xin (center) thanks the doctors as he leaves the hospital.

About a month ago, a picture of Wang and doctor Liu Kai watching the sunset on their way to a CT scan room went viral, touching the hearts of many people.

Last Thursday, the senior citizen was cured and discharged from the east branch of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, and sang happily as he left the building.

Wang Xin and doctor Liu Kai watch the sunset on their way to a CT scan room on March 5.

In fact, Wang is one of the more than 3,600 COVID-19 patients aged over 80 who have been cured in Hubei province, seven of whom are aged over 100, thanks to the joint efforts of local medical workers and medical teams dispatched from various parts of the country to help the province fight the virus.

According to Jiao Yahui, an official with China’s National Health Commission (NHC), over 90 percent of the severe and critical COVID-19 patients who are of an advanced age have underlying health problems and are difficult to treat.

The COVID-19 patients in Hubei province were classified into different groups according to their condition. Patients aged 65 and older were put into hospitals with better conditions.

Many of the country’s renowned medical experts, including Zhong Nanshan, Li Lanjuan, Wang Chen, Qiao Jie, and Huang Luqi, have led medical teams on the front line of the battle against the COVID-19 to provide guidance in the clinical treatment of severe patients.

With the country’s finest medical teams sent to aid Hubei in its fight against the novel coronavirus and local medical experts working together to make full use of their strengths, the recovery rate for severe and critical cases of COVID-19 in Wuhan has significantly improved, with that for patients aged over 80 reaching nearly 70 percent.

In addition, medical teams from across the country have constantly been optimizing diagnosis and treatment plans for severe and critical COVID-19 patients in Hubei based on their previous experience, formulating targeted treatment plans for each patient.

According to Wang Gaohua, president of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, medical teams from various parts of the country and medical staff at the hospital formed different groups that took charge of specific treatment procedures, and carried out targeted treatments for patients.

Moreover, medical staff in hospitals and health centers have been working meticulously to take care of senior patients, treating them like their own family.

One community health service center in Wuhan Donghu Technological Development Zone has set up a dedicated team that provides daily living and medical services for senior COVID-19 patients.

After learning that a senior female patient surnamed Wang preferred milk and steamed egg with ham to rice congee and vegetables that she found hard to chew, medical workers in the Guanggu branch of Tongren Hospital of Wuhan University cooked meals specially for her, and sent the food and fruit she liked to her ward three times a day.

Thanks to this kind of particularly attentive care and treatment, Wang was cured and discharged from the hospital on March 16.

Initially, one 95-year-old male COVID-19 patient surnamed Liu was uncooperative and refused to eat, according to Lai Xiaodong, head of the third batch of medical teams sent from southwest China’s Chongqing municipality to Hubei.

“I found out that he liked Peking Opera, then I knew what to do,” Lai said, revealing that medical workers downloaded audio and video materials of Peking Opera and played it for him whenever he was upset.

Thanks to this “Peking Opera therapy”, Liu was eventually cured and discharged from hospital.

Because of efforts like this, Wuhan has constantly set new records for having the oldest COVID-19 patient to be cured of the disease.

By April 11, Wuhan had eight COVID-19 patients aged over 100, of whom seven have been cured and discharged from hospitals.