Videos show the shockingly rapid progress China is making with 2 hospitals it's panic-building to fight the coronavirus
- Chinese state media is livestreaming footage of the construction of two hospitals in Wuhan city, which authorities are panic-building to fight the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus.
- The virus, which originated in Wuhan, has now killed more than 100 people and infected more than 4,500.
- Authorities have started construction on two hospitals: the Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital, due to open on February 3, and the Leishenshan Hospital, due to open on February 5.
- The city's doctors have been reporting of overcrowding, and lack of medical equipment and protective gear.
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Videos show the shockingly rapid progress the city of Wuhan, China, is making with two new hospitals it's panic-building to fight the deadly coronavirus.
The rapidly-spreading virus, which is transmitted from human to human, has killed at least 100 people and infected more than 2,700 as of Tuesday.
Medics in Wuhan, where the virus originated, have reported of overcrowded hospitals and a shortage of test kits, protective gear, and other medical equipment.
To alleviate this pressure, city authorities announced last Friday plans to build a new hospital from scratch in just six days, to be used from February 3.
Wuhan on Saturday expanded those plans, and is now urgently building two hospitals in Wuhan, the state-run People's Daily reported.
Authorities asked four construction companies to work throughout the Lunar New Year in order to complete the buildings, MailOnline reported, citing state media reports.
One is the Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital, which is due to open February 3 with an area of 25,000 square meters (269,000 square feet) with 1,000 beds, according to People's Daily. Construction on this site began Friday.
The second is the Leishenshan Hospital, which is due to open February 5 with an area of 30,000 square meters (323,000 square feet) with 1,300 beds, CGTN reported. Construction on this site started Monday.
They are located about 25 miles apart.
Chinese state media have since at least Tuesday been livestreaming footage of workers racing against the clock to build the two sites. About 10 million people had been watching it as of Tuesday afternoon local time, People's Daily said.
Watch the livestream here:
This timelapse video, published by People's Daily and MailOnline, also shows the construction of the Huoshenshan Hospital:
It shows dozens of cranes and construction trucks at work, as well as the rising foundations of the building. The background music, typical in many Chinese state propaganda videos, suggests authorities are proud of the progress they're making.
Chinese authorities have plans to build two more hospitals in the nearby Huanggang city and Zhenzhou, a city about 300 miles away, MailOnline reported.
In 2003, Chinese authorities built the Xiaotangshan Hospital in Beijing in just seven days to respond to the SARS epidemic at the time. It treated one-seventh of all of the country's SARS patients at the time, People's Daily said.
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