China opens Coronavirus hospital constructed in 8 days to nearly 50 patients on 1st day

China on Tuesday opened its field bed hospital and witnessed the admission of nearly fifty coronavirus patients on its first day, Chinese state media reported. The hospital was completed under two weeks with workers toiling day and night. In an unprecedented development, the deadly virus has killed approximately 425 people and infected over 20,000 in China. 

Fifty patients arrived on Tuesday

The 1000-bed facility was built following round the clock construction marathon with an aim to relieve the overflooded hospitals in the Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic outbreak. On Tuesday, nearly fifty patients arrived at the military-run facility, a state-backed China daily reported. Multiple images of the site surfaced on the internet showing the state hospital workers in protective suits pushing people in a wheelchair up the ramp into a prefabricated structure. 

The construction of the hospital began on January 24 with workers putting in all their efforts amid a forest of earthmovers and trucks carting materials around the site. 

Read: China Coronavirus Hospital Ready To Receive Patients After A Record 8-day Completion

Read: North Africans Evacuated From China Land In Algiers

The emergency hospital was built in a record time of just eight days and it will house patients with confirmed infections to ease the shortage of beds elsewhere in the city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the contagious disease. According to Chinese state media, the new hospital was built on the same construction plans from a hospital built in Beijing in 2003 during the SARS outbreak. The hospital, 'Huoshenshan' meaning the 'fire-god mountain' is named after Zhurong, an important figure in Chinese mythology and Chinese folk religion.

According to media reports, more than 7,500 workers worked day and night to finish the project that was started on January 25. Chinese state media had earlier reported that the country is building another hospital in the same city with a capacity of 1,600 beds for the treatment of coronavirus patients. The second hospital will reportedly be named 'Leishenshan' or 'thunder-god mountain.'

Read: Coronavirus Death Toll Rises To 425 In China, Over 20,000 Infected

Read: Coronavirus Testing Facility Likely At Mumbai Hospital

(with inputs from agencies)