BEIJING, February 7. /TASS/. The second of two new hospitals in China’s Wuhan will be opened on Saturday, Wuhan’s Vice-Mayor Hu Yabo said during a press conference on Friday.
"The 1,600-bed Leishenshan hospital will be opened on February 8," he said. According to the official, Wuhan hospitals can receive 8,900 patients in total, with the Huoshenshan hospital, which opened last week, receiving an additional 1,000 patients.
"Three field hospitals are working in the city with 4,250 beds," he added. City officials are currently re-equipping several school and university buildings for healthcare purposes.
The decision to construct the Leishenshan hospital was taken on January 25. The total area of the hospital comes up to 60,000 square meters. About 2,000 medical professionals are set to work at the hospital.
On February 4, the Huoshenshan hospital opened near Wuhan. Its construction was initiated on January 24. The hospital was built in eight days.
On December 31, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of an unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan - a large trade and industrial center in central China populated by 11 million people. On January 7, Chinese experts identified the infecting agent - coronavirus 2019-nCoV. The virus spread to 24 more countries apart from China - Australia, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, India, Italy, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam. WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak in China a global health emergency.
Currently, the total number of people infected with coronavirus exceeded 31,000 in China with over 630 people reported to have died from the disease. Meanwhile, over 1,500 people are said to have recovered from it.