Twenty-eight people in Shanghai who were infected by the novel coronavirus pneumonia have been cured and were discharged from hospital on Friday, according to the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission.

Six of these individuals have expressed a willingness to donate blood after learning from a report that the blood of recovered patients contains antibodies that can fight the pathogens, said Lu Hongzhou, Party chief of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center where the patients were treated. The use of plasma is usually reserved for patients in severe conditions.

The city's health authorities will also conduct visits to the discharged patients to check on their conditions.

There were no new cases of infection reported in Shanghai during the first half of Friday. As of noon, Shanghai has a total of 318 confirmed cases, with the oldest patient being 88 years old and the youngest being seven months old.