Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus (nCoV), has built three "square cabin" hospitals to treat patients with mild symptoms of the virus.

Built within a night

State-run media Xinhua reported that Wuhan started building the makeshift hospitals on Monday, Feb. 3.

They were completed in a single night at a pace it dubbed "Chinese speed".

They are converted from the Wuhan International Conference and Exhibition Centre (1,000 beds), the Wuhan Hongshan Sports Centre (800 beds), and the Wuhan Living Hall (2,000 beds).

Xinhua explained that "square cabin" hospitals are a sort of medical facility used by the People's Liberation Army as they can be assembled or taken apart freely, which makes them flexible enough to adapt to different emergency requirements.

In #Wuhan, to host #coronavirus patients who have minor symptoms, one sports center & two exhibition centers were requisitioned to form a "Square Cabin" Hospital, with 2400 beds in total. #CoronavirusOutbreak #武汉 征用体育馆，会展中心建医院，总床位2400张。据说是收治轻症病人的。 pic.twitter.com/ul7RPlDyye

— Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng 曾錚真言 (@jenniferzeng97) February 4, 2020

They are able to receive patients below the age of 65, leaving older and more vulnerable patients to receive closer medical attention at hospitals with more resources.

Two other hospitals built

These facilities are an addition to the two hospitals that Wuhan had already built in the past two weeks, which are the Huoshenshan Hospital and the Leishenshan Hospital.

The 1,000-bed Huoshenshan Hospital had already completed construction, while the 1,600-bed Leishenshan Hospital is near completion.

"Square cabin" hospitals well received by commenters

Chinese commenters on China's Twitter-like Weibo were full of praise for the facilities, saying they can better deal with the situation now that milder cases are differentiated from the more serious ones that require closer medical attention.

"Patients with mild symptoms receiving concentrated treatment can reduce the waste of resources. The best medical resources are also reserved for those with more serious illnesses. The number of fatalities can then be reduced. Hope everyone's equipped with basic comprehension skills."

"Differentiating the level of treatment, worth replicating elsewhere too."

"My mum told me not to comment if I'm not done reading the news."

"The bedsheets are of different styles. They really tried hard to gather resources."

"(The patients staying there) are already suspected cases, if they are quarantined at home with no medication or medical knowledge, and can still infect their families, then this sort of concentrated quarantine is the best way. Stop fussing over this y'all. Unless you guys have another way of producing tens of thousands of units in a short period of time."

"I feel that it's easier to get infected this way?"

Reply: "They are all patients infected with the virus, there's no such thing as getting reinfected."

Reply: "They are all confirmed cases, and won't get infected again.. I'm more concerned with how they are going to relieve themselves and how they are going to eat."

Top image via Xinhua