Eight medics prepare to help fight the outbreak in Hubei province. [Photo/WeChat account: hefeigaoxinfabu]

Eight medical personnel from the Hefei National High-tech Industrial Development Zone set off for Hubei province on Feb 15 to help fight the novel coronavirus.

The team was formed in less than 12 hours after the zone received an order from the provincial and municipal governments, the local government said.

It consists of medics specializing in respiratory diseases, severe pneumonia, and infection, who are urgently needed on the frontlines in Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak.

Cao Xiaoji, vice director of the administrative committee of the zone, encouraged the team to do their best to save infected patients in Hubei.

Cao also told them to protect themselves, and said that the administrative committee will help take care of their families until they return.

"We received this kind of treatment during the 2003 SARS epidemic, and now we want to give others the same treatment during the current outbreak," said Fang Kai, a nurse at the Cardiovascular Hospital in the Hefei National High-tech Industrial Development Zone and a member of the medical team to be sent to Hubei.