A transport aircraft of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force arrives at Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 17, 2020. (Xinhua/Li He)

The military medical teams sent to Central China's Hubei Province to fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have completed their mission and are returning home, and Chinese military experts noted that this professional and advanced force which specialized in fighting the pandemic could be deployed to any other place in need once they receive new orders.

With the approval of Xi Jinping, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, the teams have begun to leave the province on civilian chartered flights and trains after successfully completing their medical missions on treatment of confirmed COVID-19 patients at Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital, Wuhan Taikang Tongji Hospital and the Guanggu branch of Hubei Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19, the Chinese military has dispatched more than 4,000 medical personnel in three batches from multiple military medical units of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Rocket Force, Strategic Support Force, Joint Logistic Support Force and Armed Police to aid Hubei's Wuhan, a city hit hardest by the COVID-19 epidemic in China, starting January 24.

Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military expert, told the Global Times on Thursday that the Chinese military medical teams have accomplished their mission in the Hubei's battle against the COVID-19 with a victorious result.

"The military medical teams can play a very unique role in the fight against the virus. 

The military forces can use special resources to realize fast deployment and mobilization, including China's most advanced large military transport aircraft such as the Y-20, and they also have advanced equipment such as battlefield ambulances as well as anti-biochemical materials which they can deploy immediately to establish professional combat hospitals to treat infected patients," Wei noted.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) medical teams are much more experienced than most medical teams in China, since they accomplished a series of tough missions in the past, including the fight against SARS in 2003, the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008, and the battle in Africa against the Ebola virus, and many UN peacekeeping missions, said Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator.

The three hospitals under military management deployed 2,856 beds and treated 7,198 confirmed COVID-19 patients without a single medical staff member getting infected, Xinhua reported.

Upon leaving Wuhan, the military medical teams sorted out the goods at hospitals and dormitories, sterilized medical facilities and archived documents, Xinhua said, noting that the troops responsible for the living supplies transport for Wuhan have also completed their mission and are returning.

Song told the Global Times that the anti-virus battle in Hubei has shown that the military reform of the PLA is successful as this is a tough fight and a massive emergency crisis which could test the capability of the PLA in military operations other than war.

The PLA showed powerful and advanced logistical and transportation capabilities in this mission, and apart from the anti-virus mission in Hubei, PLA medical experts are also conducting research for the COVID-19 vaccine, "so these could provide the valuable opportunities to observe China's latest comprehensive military capability," he noted.

Suifenhe, a city in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province which borders Russia, is facing heavy pressure of imported COVID-19 cases. 

Song noted that the PLA medical teams are capable of executing operations in all kinds of environments, so they could immediately be transported to any place in need, including Suifenhe, for epidemic prevention and control missions once they receive new orders.