Within 48 hours, China’s first Wuhan virus hospital dedicated to treating infected patients is now up and running! With the help of workers and volunteers, what was once an empty building in a city near Wuhan became an emergency facility with 1,000 beds.
According to the Daily Mail, the first batch of coronavirus patients was transferred to the hospital, now known as Dabie Mountain Regional medical Centre in Huanggang, as early as 10:30pm yesterday following China’s local time.
The construction process was executed as efficiently as possible as construction firms, utility companies and paramilitary police officers all came together to ensure the speedy set up of the medical centre.
Over 500 workers and a dozen heavy vehicles worked tirelessly over the span of two days and nights to complete the construction of the hospital in time.
On Friday, local authorities ordered that the empty building be used solely to treat coronavirus patients only. Construction works only began to take place the next day. However, by Monday, all the beds had already been set up by volunteers with a steady supply of water, electricity and internet functioning and ready for use.
Videos from China’s Cover News even demonstrated medical staff familiarising themselves with the facility and equipment to prepare themselves in anticipation for the arrival of the first batch of infected patients.
With over 132 deaths and 6062 reported cases of people infected to date, hospitals all over China have been experiencing a shortage of medical supplies and staff to treat patients. Not only are they overcrowded with infected patients daily, but medical practitioners themselves are also suffering mental breakdowns from the lack of rest after treating patients tirelessly.
While this hospital in Huanggang was the first to open, it wasn’t the first to be planned. Wuhan’s government initially announced last Thursday that they would build a coronavirus hospital in a week. It’s also been said that there are at least four facilities that are in the process of being completed for the same purpose in the country.
These facilities are designed to take after a temporary medical centre that was built in Beijing in 2003 when authorities took a week to construct a centre solely dedicated to tackling SARS, successfully treating one-seventh of the country’s SARS patients within the span of two months!
Meanwhile, Wuhan is also building two special facilities is to treat an estimated total of 2,300 infected coronavirus patients.
That’s some hopeful news. It’s so encouraging seeing everybody come together to effectively tackle this global epidemic. What do you guys think of this?
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