China constructs Wuhan hospital for coronavirus patients in 10 days

China built a 1,000-bed hospital facility from scratch in just ten days in Wuhan and opened it to coronavirus patients. It is the result of a round-the-clock construction marathon and the two-floor facility was handed over on Sunday to the army. About 1,400 military medics will be staffed here. The team will include those who had experience dealing with Ebola and SARS.



The coronavirus has killed more than 400 people and infected about 20,000 others mainly in Hubei province. The outbreak first emerged in December and since then has spread to two-dozen countries.

Wuhan, city in Hubei, is the epicentre of coronavirus, which has killed more in the country than the SARS outbreak of 2003. National health emergency has been declared.

World Health Organization (WHO) has declared it a global health emergency and on Sunday the first death outside China was reported in Philippines.

All the people in Wuhan are mandated to wear mask by authorities. They are being checked for fevers.

According to the state media, patients will start arriving to the newly built hospital on Monday.

Authorities said the facilities are modelled on the Xiaotangshan hospital in Beijing. It is built from prefabricated structures.

The Xiaotangshan hospital was built in about a week in 2003 to treat SARS infected patients.

SARS killed 349 in China and hundreds more in other countries including Hong Kong.

Footage of the construction of the new hospital was streamed live on social media.