China builds Wuhan virus hospital in 10 days, which state media said would normally take 2 years

The process was livestreamed.

Belmont Lay | February 03, 2020, 05:35 PM

China built a makeshift hospital in 10 days and handed the keys to the Chinese military to oversee operations.

The entire construction was livestreamed.

China's army was given control of the nearly-finished Huoshenshan Hospital on Sunday, Feb. 2, which was built in record time to treat Wuhan virus patients.

The 1,000-bed hospital, dubbed "Fire God Mountain", will receive its first patients on Monday, Feb. 3, just 10 days after construction began.

Some 1,400 military medics will treat patients.

Of these, 950 people are from hospitals affiliated to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Joint Logistic Support Force, and 450 from medical universities of the army, navy and air force of the PLA who were sent to Wuhan earlier.

Many of the staff were involved in the fight against another coronavirus, SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed some 650 people in mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002 to 2003, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Would have taken two years

Xinhua also reported that such a project would normally take two years, although this duration could also be an exaggeration.

Authorities reportedly spent five hours on the designing plan and created a designing draft within 24 hours.

Three companies received an order to build the "Fire God Mountain" hospital.

Thousands of workers were operating more than 800 equipment simultaneously.

More than 7,500 workers took part in the fast-build project, which began on Jan. 25 and was finished within the first few days of February.

What was certain though was the harsh conditions many of the migrant workers had to undergo in one-and-a-half weeks to get the facility up and running.

Xinhua reported that it was difficult to provide adequate food and shelter on-site.

While construction was apparently underway, a video showed what the interior looked like:

https://twitter.com/fiteray/status/1223909981658828800

Towards the end of the video, it showed that one of the doors built could only be opened from the outside.

But the completed hospital reportedly looked like this:

Livestreamed construction

While construction was ongoing, the Chinese public logged online to supervise the progress of the hospital, as videos were shot of the proceedings to highlight such a massive national undertaking.

China's state broadcaster livestreamed the around-the-clock construction progress, and online users took it upon themselves to supervise the proceedings.

"Cheer up, China! I believe we can curb the epidemic," one online comment, typical of many others, read.

Second hospital being built

Huoshenshan hospital is one of two makeshift medical facilities that the authorities decided to build in order to relieve hospitals swamped with patients in Wuhan, the central city at the epicentre of a deadly virus epidemic that has severely strained medical facilities.

Those seeking treatment in the city of 11 million people have complained of waiting hours to see a doctor.

The second field hospital, Leishenshan, or "Thunder God Mountain", is set to start admitting patients on Thursday.

It has 1,600 beds, 300 more than originally planned.

The new coronavirus has killed more than 300 people and infected another 14,000.