Built in little over a week, a hospital dedicated to treating people infected with a deadly new coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan began receiving patients on Monday, state media said.
The 1,000-bed facility was designed for patients with confirmed infections to ease a shortage of beds elsewhere in Wuhan, where the rapidly-spreading virus is thought to have originated late last year.
More than 7,500 labourers worked around the clock to construct Huoshenshan Hospital, which was modelled on a facility set up in China’s capital, Beijing, in 2003 to help tackle an outbreak of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
The new coronavirus has so far killed at least 361 people and infected more than 17,000 in China and at least 171 overseas. In Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, there are more than 11,000 cases, state television said on Monday.
China is building a second hospital in Wuhan dedicated to the treatment of coronavirus patients, with 1,600 beds. It is scheduled to open on Wednesday.