Dedicated hospital to treat Wuhan's patients to be built in 6 days

CGTN Photo

Veteran Engineer Wu Zhizhen is always onsite and always on the phone. To speed up the construction, he stays alert.

Emulating Beijing's response to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, when it built Xiaotangshan Hospital in seven days to care for SARS patients, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak – Wuhan City in central China – is now building a new 1,000-bed hospital to treat patients with the new coronavirus.

It has been named Huoshenshan Hospital and is expected to be completed in six days, according to Wuhan authorities. Construction has already begun in the city's western suburb.

Hundreds of machines work at a time on the site. Their common goal is to build a new hospital to combat the new coronavirus.

"We have just received some high-density polyethylene material. That's a lot, but we have enough trucks. The plan is to get those things tomorrow. I am coordinating to see if we can get them today. We have to get things done ahead of schedule," said Wu Zhizhen, Wuhan Construction'schief construction engineer.

Wu Zhizhen works on-site with his colleagues. /CGTN Photo

The high-density polyethylene material will be used to prevent polluted water and the virus from leaking into the land. The site is next to some residential buildings, and the construction plan has to ensure their safety.

"We have no technical issues, but we don't have enough time to purchase materials and equipment," said Zhou Pan, Wuhan Construction's deputy manager.

They are not only working with a short completion time but also short-staffed. Pan's company and three others work on a site that is 50,000 square meters. The company had to call on workers to give up their new year break.

Wu only rests five hours a day. He said the sense of responsibility drives him to work tirelessly despite having heart problems.

"As a Wuhan resident and a construction worker, I have an obligation to contribute all I can," Wu said.

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(CGTN's Pan Zhaoyi also contributed to the story.)