Objective To evaluate the effect of integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine for treating severe or critical cases of coronavirus disease 2019（COVID-19）. Methods A prospective single arm clinical study was designed. Severe or critical cases of COVID-19 were recruited from eight designated hospitals for COVID-19 in Henan Province from January 21

2020 to February 24

2020. All the patients were treated with integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine. The negative conversion of viral nucleic acid

disease outcome

length of hospital stays

and lung imaging were observed. Clinical symptoms and signs were assessed before treatment and after 7 and 14 days treatment. Results Totally

46 cases were included in the analysis. Forty-one cases（89.1%） were reported of negative conversion of viral nucleic acid

and the median time to negative conversion was 12 days. Forty-one cases（89.1%） were discharged from hospital

and five cases（10.9%） died. The median time of hospital stay was 12 days. The scores of fever

chest tightness

shortness of breath and fatigue after 7 and 14 days treatment significantly decreased than before treatment（P<0.01）; the score of cough on the 14 th days after treatment significantly decreased than before treatment（P<0.01）

as well as than the 7 th day after treatment（P<0.01）. The improvement rate of chest imaging and computed tomography（CT） imaging in those who completed the imaging examination at the time of discharge was 58.3%（7/12） and 66.7%（16/24）

respectively. Conclusion The integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine has a good effect for treating COVID-19

which can improve the clinical symptoms and promote the absorption of pulmonary inflammation. However

large sample size controlled clinical trials are needed for further verification.