Amid Coronavirus Outbreak, China Opens Emergency Hospital After Just 10 Days

In the fight against the deadly Coronavirus which is spreading like wildfire in Wuhan, China just opened a new emergency hospital that was built in just 10 days.

The number of confirmed cases keeps rising every day. Other countries continued to evacuate its citizens from the Hubei province as well as restricting Chinese or travelers coming back from the country from entering their territories. According to the World Health Organization, there will be a growth in the number of cases since for many suspected cases, tests are still pending.

The outbreak has caused the hospitals in the city to be overloaded. Hospital staff has been forced to reject new patients because of a lack of basic medical supplies and beds. On Feb 3, the Huoshenshan facility with 1,000 beds started operating and receiving patients. The next hospital named Leishenshan with 1,600 beds will be ready for operation by February 5.

Previously, a rendering image from the website of the construction company showed us what the hospital would look like once it is completed. With photos and videos from the construction company as well as Chinese officials, we got to have a fuller look at how China was able to build such a facility in such a short period of time.

The Huoshenshan hospital covers around eight acres. It has an intensive care unit, consultation rooms, patient wards, medical equipment rooms, etc. There are separate quarantine wards built to reduce cross-infection risks.

The hospital has two stories with prefabricated units. Videos and images of the site started surfacing online on January 24, showing bulldozers, excavators, and other earthmoving equipment working to level the ground. Layers of matting were then added and concrete was poured. There are pillars to keep the hospital off the ground. The construction company hooked together flat boards to build each unit.

Each unit covers 100 square feet and has two beds. The construction company depressurizes each room so there is plenty of air inside, which is commonly done in hospitals to prevent the spreading of airborne microorganisms into corridors and hallways.

Officials said that the two new emergency hospitals were built based on the model of the Xiaotangshan hospital. Xiaotangshan was built in Beijing back in 2003 amid the outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. The hospital was finished in just seven days. Xinhua News Agency reported that 99 percent of patients treated at Xiaotangshang had recovered while no medical staff was infected by the end of June 2003.

The virus is believed to have come from Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which is a trading place for wildlife. On 23 January, to prevent the virus from spreading, the Chinese authorities put the city under lockdown. Some airlines have also suspended their flights to mainland China. According to researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the genome sequenced taken from seven patients were reportedly 96% identical to coronavirus from bats.

Foreign nationals who are being evacuated from the city are being transferred into quarantine centers. The deadly virus has spread to 16 countries outside of China including Australia, Cambodia, Canada, France, Germany, Côte d'Ivoire, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, the U.S, and Vietnam.

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