In the early stages of pneumonia, patients usually have a violent cough with thick sputum that cannot be easily coughed up. With the application of anti-infective treatment and cough suppressant drugs, if the sputum changes from thick to thin and is easier to cough up than before, then an increase in sputum is a sign that pneumonia is improving. If a patient with pneumonia has a lot of sputum, but it is still sticky and not easy to cough up, the patient’s cough is not significantly better than before, and the body temperature does not drop significantly, more sputum is not necessarily a sign that pneumonia is improving, but may also be an aggravation of pneumonia. Therefore, to determine whether pneumonia is improving, we must look at the combination of whether the body temperature has decreased and whether the cough symptoms are less severe than before. If the patient’s general condition is better than before, and the sputum increases but is thinner and easier to cough up than before, this is a sign that the pneumonia is improving.