Coronavirus news latest: Timelapse footage shows Wuhan hospital being built in just 10 days

This aerial footage documents how China rushed to build an emergency hospital to deal with the coronavirus outbreak in just ten days.

Work on the Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic, began on January 24 and finished in almost record-breaking time.

Timelapse video shows the speed and scale of construction, which continued throughout a number of nights.

The 1,000-bed facility is one of the two emergency speciality field hospitals built in the city in central China's Hubei Province, designed for the isolated and efficient treatment of sufferers of the deadly virus.

The second, containing 1,500 beds, is due to open later this week.

This aerial photo shows the Huoshenshan hospital, which means "Fire God Mountain", as it nears completion
AP

The first patients began arriving at Huoshenshan on Monday, according to state media, after more than 361 deaths were confirmed in mainland China - overtaking the number killed in the 2003 Sars epidemic.

At the time, a facility was constructed in Beijing in just a week to deal with the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Coronavirus - In pictures

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The ruling Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, said it had sent 1,400 doctors, nurses and other personnel to staff the Wuhan hospital, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Most of the city’s 11 million people are barred from leaving the area. Authorities have cut most road, rail and air access to Wuhan and surrounding cities, isolating some 50 million people, in efforts to contain the viral outbreak.

There have been more than 17,000 confirmed cases in Mainland China alone, with more than 150 outside the country including one death in the Philippines.

The Huoshenshan Hospital was built by a 7,000-member crew of carpenters, plumbers, electricians and other specialists, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Photos in state media showed workers in winter clothing, safety helmets and the surgical-style masks worn by millions of Chinese in an attempt to avoid contracting the virus.

About half of the two-story, 60,000-square-metre building consists of isolation wards and 30 intensive care units, according to the government newspaper Yangtze Daily.

A patient's room at the Huoshenshan temporary field hospital in Wuhan
AP

Doctors can talk with outside experts over a video system that links them to Beijing’s PLA General Hospital, the paper reported.

It said the system was installed in less than 12 hours by a 20-member “commando team” from Wuhan Telecom Ltd.

The building has specialised ventilation systems and double-sided cabinets that connect patient rooms to hallways and allow hospital staff to deliver supplies without entering the rooms.

Chinese employees work at the construction site of the Huoshenshan hospital
AFP via Getty Images

The hospital received a donation of “medical robots” from a Chinese company for use in delivering medicines and carrying test samples, according to the Shanghai newspaper The Paper.

In other cities, the government has designated hospitals to handle cases of the new virus.

In Beijing, the Xiaotangshan Hospital built in 2003 for Sars is being renovated by construction workers.

The government has yet to say whether it might be used for patients with the new disease

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