Wuhan, the sprawling capital of Central China’s Hubei province, sets a target of building a new hospital within six days for treating coronavirus patients.
The work of excavation is going on in full swing at a site in Wuhan where the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus started.
After the outbreak of coronavirus and death of at least 26 people across the country prompted the authorities of Wuhan to build the brand-new hospital within a record period of six days.
The disease is also overwhelming the health system of the quarantined city.
Also read: Health ministry precautions after outbreak of coronavirus in China
According to media reports, Wuhan’s strategy mirrors Beijing’s efforts to control the deadly SARS coronavirus outbreak in 2003 when it built a hospital in just seven days.
That hospital reportedly was able to treat one-seventh of the country’s patients 17 years back.
As per reports, as of Friday morning, the 2019-nCoV virus has infected over 870 people.
The Chinese authorities have closed down public transport links in Wuhan and nine other cities, sealing off a total of 30 million people.
The people have to queue for hours for medical attention as screening the disease is difficult, say doctors as there is not enough protective gear.
Some doctors have reportedly been asked not to go to work over fears they could catch the virus.
A reputed news agency quoted Wuhan authorities as saying on Friday that a new 1,000-bed hospital is being constructed for coronavirus patients to address the insufficiency of the existing medical resources.
Video footage posted online by Chinese state media shows diggers have already started to work at the site, which has an area of 25,000 square metres.
Another media report quoted Joan Kaufman, lecturer in global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School as saying: “It’s basically a quarantined hospital where they send people with infectious diseases so it has the safety and protective gear in place.”