Stuck at home amid the coronavirus outbreak, tens of millions of people in China are watching livestream videos of two makeshift hospitals being built at breakneck speed in Wuhan, the outbreak’s epicentre.
Many are calling themselves volunteer construction "supervisors" as they exchange views over the internet on the emergency projects, which Wuhan city government promised would be finished by Monday, 3 February, China Daily reports.
As of last night the confirmed death toll in China had reached 132, up from 26 on Friday, BBC News reports.Â
The number of confirmed cases of the novel form of pneumonia stood at 4,537 as of last night, and 4,593 globally, the World Health Organisation said. The number of confirmed cases in China was 830 on Friday.
Wuhan’s government kickstarted construction of the first, 1,000-bed hospital, called Huoshenshan, on Friday, 24 January. The following day it launched a second hospital, called Leishenshan, to accommodate 1,300 beds.Â
A third hospital for the virus, containing 1,000 beds, was created in just two days by converting an empty complex, the Dabie Mountain Medical Centre in the nearby city of Huanggang, into an emergency treatment centre.
The first batch of coronavirus patients were checked into the facility at 10:30pm local time last night, state broadcaster CGTN reported.
Image: ©GCR, illustration by Denis Carrier
