A 1,000-bed hospital, which was built in just 10 days, treated its first patients earlier this week.
The Huoshenshan Hospital was built specifically for patients infected with coronavirus; it is situated on the outskirts of Wuhan, the city where the outbreak is believed to have originated.
Construction began on January 24, 2020 with a team of 7,000 working in shifts around the clock to finish the build. Fang Xiang, whose employees worked on the hospital, said a project of this scale would usually take two years. Several workers said they slept only two hours in three days while constructing the hospital.
Hundreds of doctors and medical personnel were brought in from China’s military to staff the 60,000 square meter (645,000 square foot) hospital.
This is not the first time that China has had to build specialized medical facilities on a tight deadline. During the SARS epidemic of 2003, a hospital in Beijing was constructed in a week.
In an attempt to prevent a pandemic, Wuhan remains on lockdown. Millions of its inhabitants are still barred from leaving the city with no indication of when the ban will be lifted.