Photo: Xinhua

China's National Medical Product Administration has issued approvals for several types of drugs that are effective for diagnosing novel coronavirus pneumonia or COVID-19, the country's top epidemiologist and leading government medical adviser Zhong Nanshan announced on Sunday. 

Zhong shared the news on Sunday afternoon during a video conference while conducting a special medical consultation with doctors in Jingzhou, Central China's Hubei Province and medics from South China's Guangdong Province who were sent to help.  

According to Zhong, a special drug developed by Beijing-based CapitalBio Corp was among the drugs mentioned. It is capable of differentiating COVID-19 infection from that of regular influenza, which is of urgent value as an influenza outbreak is also occurring in the US as well as in China.

Also, two examination toolkits developed by Guangzhou firm Wondfo and Tangshan's Innovita both focusing on observation of the patient's immunoglobulin M (IgM) inside his or her body, as the IgM would emerge as a special response body to the virus after seven days of infection or three days into the onset of symptoms, were also approved by the regulator.

They would be especially useful in Hubei, Zhong noted.