POP-UP OPS
AN EMERGENCY 1,000-bed hospital set up specifically to treat coronavirus patients in China has been completed.
Huoshenshan, which was constructed in just nine days, was finished today and it will be able to receive patients from Monday, state media said.
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The hospital has an area of 269,000 square feet and is one of two new buildings established in Wuhan in the wake of the World Health Organisation's declaration of global emergency.
Chinese authorities are building a second hospital 25 miles away from Huoshenshan, called Leishenshan.
It has a capacity of 1,600 beds - 300 more than originally planned - and is expected to open on Wednesday.
The design for the buildings was based on a Beijing hospital that was constructed in 2003 to help tackle the SARS epidemic, which spread to more than two dozen countries in 2003 and infected 8,000.
During the SARS outbreak approximately 4,000 people worked day and night to build the hospital in seven days.
Engineers from across the country were reportedly brought in to help speed up the construction of the makeshift medical facilities.
Like the hospital in Beijing, the Wuhan centre will be made out of prefabricated buildings.
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The facilities will either be allowed to take supplies from other hospitals or order them from factories.
Wuhan, a city of 11million people in Hubei province, has been quarantined for more than a week after it was reported the outbreak started at a meat market in December.
And facilities in the city have been pushed to breaking point, with social media footage appearing to show hallways packed with patients waiting to be seen and staff stepping over dead bodies.
The opening of the two additional hospitals comes as a relief to both doctors and paramedics, as overwhelmed medics in China are reportedly being attacked by panicked patients.
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The Chinese military has been sent in to Wuhan to assist doctors, but medical staff have complained they’ve been spread too thin as patients are stilling queuing for treatment.
China's health authorities say 304 people have died from the coronavirus, with more than 14,000 cases in the country and beyond.
There have been 130 cases in several other countries, including two people in the UK.
The first fatality outside of China was recorded on Sunday when a man from the Philippines died after contracting the deadly infection.
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China builds emergency hospital in Wuhan to manage coronavirus Outbreak
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