Patients can take the medicine after medical workers help mix it all with boiled water.

The vehicle is one of two provided by the Sichuan Neo-Green Pharmaceutical Technology Development Co Ltd, based in Southwest China's Sichuan province. They became available on Jan 27 to assist in the fight against the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, said Zeng Xiaoyun, an official from the company.

"It saves time in the fight against the novel coronavirus," said Kang Li, a doctor with the Department of TCM at the Third People's Hospital of Chengdu in Sichuan province.

"To drink a medicinal soup, one has to soak all the medicine in water for half an hour before decocting the mixture of water and the medicine inside it on a stove for between 20 and 30 minutes," she said.