Chinese hospital built in eight days begins to receive victims

Reuters and Agencies, 4 February 2020, Shanghai and Beijing: Built in a mere eight days, a Chinese hospital dedicated to treating people infected with the new coronavirus in Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic, will begin receiving patients on Monday, state media said.

O Huoshenshan hospital, or “Mountain of the God Fire”, was designed to welcome 1,000 patients with confirmed infections to ease the lack of beds elsewhere in the city now that the virus is spreading. 

The epidemic has already killed 361 people, infected more than 17,000 in China and at least 171 abroad. There are more than 11,000 cases in Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, state television reported on Monday.

The construction of Huoshenshan was inspired by a hospital built in Beijing in 2003 to combat SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). More than 7,500 workers participated in the cashier project, which started on January 25 and ended this weekend.

China is building a second 1,600-bed hospital in Wuhan to treat coronavirus patients. Leishenshan, or “Mountain of the Thunder God”, is due to be completed on February 5.

A 1,000-bed hospital built in eight days to treat people with the virus in Wuhan was due to receive its first patients on Monday, state media said. More than 7,500 workers took part in the construction, begun on Jan. 25.

A second hospital in Wuhan with 1,600 beds is due to be ready on Feb. 5.

While countries have been trying to block the virus with travel bans, they have also been getting stranded citizens out of Wuhan.

The United States, which flew people out last week, is planning“a handful more flights” while Russia was due to start evacuating its citizens from Wuhan on Monday.

Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, rocked by months of sometimes violent anti-China protests, announced the closure of four more border crossings with mainland China, leaving just three open.

Australia evacuated 243 people from Wuhan and will quarantine them on a remote island. On Saturday it had followed the United States in barring entry to all foreign nationals travelling from mainland China.

The virus is thought to have emerged late last year in a Wuhan market illegally trading wildlife.

The number of deaths in China has now passed the total Chinese toll from the 2002-03 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), another coronavirus that emerged from China and killed almost 800 people around the world.

Even so, Chinese data suggests the new coronavirus, while more contagious than SARS, is significantly less lethal, although such numbers can evolve rapidly.