The speciality hospital for the spreading coronavirus has been set up in Wuhan after 10 days of hard labour. The Chinese media reported that on Monday the hospital opened its door for the first set of patients. This is not the first time that China is setting up a hospital under a tight deadline. In 2003, during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak, China had proved what dedication and hard labour can achieve.
The hospital built in the ground zero for containing the infectious disease of 2019-nCoV had around 7,000 dedicated workers working round the clock to complete the construction in time. During an interview with China Central Television project manager Fang Xiang said that a project this big would have taken at least two years to complete. He added that it takes around a month to complete a temporary building.
Social Media and Chinese state media is flooded with pictures of the workers sleeping in shifts while the construction takes place. The workers reportedly slept only for two to three hours per day to complete the construction of the building.
Holding capacity and the medical staff
The Chinese state agency Xinhua reported that the holding capacity of the Huoshenshan Hospital is at 1,000 with intensive care facilities and sections for diagnosis and infection control. The Chinese military has also drafted hundreds of personnel who are equipped to handle any viral outbreaks like the novel coronavirus. It is said that there would be around 1,400 medics on the site.
Several of the staff deployed to the hospital has dealt with the SARS outbreak, Ebola and other infectious diseases. A second hospital dedicated to the virus will be built with the capacity of 1,300 beds and other facilities by later this week. The hospital built on an area of 60,000 square meters has been constructed to contain the virus in every sense. There is a protective layer beneath the hospital to prevent the contamination of the soil. The wastewater will be sterilized twice before the discharge.
Netizens have questions
Ever since the outbreak began, social media has been active in talking about the progress, prevention, and precaution. There has also been active questioning about the actions in the country of China. Several of the actions are criticized as well as appreciated. When the video of the new hospital was seen, it started circulating around the social media with the question of why is it that the ward doors can only be opened from the outside and not from the inside.
Some videos show the situation wherein people are not taking proper precaution and some show the government forcing the people to go into quarantine. Some even suggest that there are were houses built to quarantine the people. The hospitals have throngs of people asking for medical attention and supplies are falling short.
