DISCOVERIES
CORONAVIRUS
New hospitals
spring up
in Wuhan
With existing hospitals reporting bed
shortages due to the demand created
by the rapid spread of coronavirus,
on 24 January China decided to begin
constructing new ones. Less than two
weeks later, the doors of the new medical
facilities opened to the first patients
Wuhan, Hubei province, China
2
1
- Two new hospitals sprung
up in Wuhan, the capital city
of Hubei province, in the first
week of February. It had
taken less than two weeks
to go from breaking ground
on the site to admitting the
first patients. The two new
hospitals – the 1,000-bed
Huoshenshan (pictured) and
1,600-bed Leishenshan
- are based on the design of
Beijing’s Xiaotangshan
hospital, which was built to
cope with 2003’s SARS
outbreak. Huoshenshan and
Leishenshan were made
from prefabricated units to
get them built quickly.
- Three ‘field’ hospitals
were also being set up in
Wuhan in early February.
The pictured 2,000-bed
facility was in a building
that, until the coronavirus
outbreak, had been an
exhibition centre. Another of
the city’s exhibition centres
and a gym have also been
commandeered to handle
the volume of patients.- Patients began arriving
at Huoshenshan on Tuesday
4 February. Two days later,
the first patients were
expected to be admitted
to Leishenshan hospital. - 1,400 medical staff had
been drafted in from China’s
military to treat patients at
the Huoshenshan hospital. - Efforts to control the
spread of coronavirus in
areas outside Hubei see
volunteers disinfecting
public areas. Here, a railway
station in Hunan, a province
to the south of Hubei, is
sprayed with chemicals to
kill the virus.
GET T Y IMAGES X3, REUTERS X2