Huoshenshan 'Instant' Hospital Receives Its First Corona Virus Patient

Huoshenshan Hospital (twitter @brunoalberti)

JAKARTA - China has successfully completed the construction of the Huoshenshan Hospital (RS) in a fairly short time, around 10 days. This hospital has also begun to accept and treat patients specifically for the corona virus (2019-nCoV), also known as the Wuhan flu.

Reporting from the South China Morning Post, the hospital, which is named Huoshenshan or 'Mountain of the Fire God', has received its first batch of patients from a number of hospitals dealing with the coronavirus.

Huoshenshan Hospital stands on an area of eight hectares, and has fairly capable facilities and has 1,500 beds. Huoshenshan Hospital also has medical robot facilities and a special quarantine room.

China is set to open Wuhan's Huoshenshan Hospital on Monday. The 1,000-bed facility was built in 10 days to cope with the coronavirus outbreak https://t.co/w40vKsuwVk pic.twitter.com/JqFcFGLaLu

- TIME (@TIME) February 3, 2020

The construction of this instant hospital was done in no time. According to the China State Construction Engineering Corp website, it shows how dozens of excavators and bulldozers worked day and night to build the Huoshenshan Hospital.

Quoted from Xinhua, this is not the first time China has built a hospital in a short time to deal with a disease outbreak. Xiaotangshan Hospital, was the first hospital built by China to treat SARS patients in 2003. China also managed to handle 99 percent of the patients treated at Xiaotangshan Hospital, without any infected medical personnel.

Based on the medical records, Chinese President Xi Jinping rushed to build the Huoshenshan hospital. Military doctors have also been seconded as medical staff at Huoshenshan Hospital, since February 2. This medical operation is said to be the largest non-military operation since the Yushu earthquake in 2010.

Newly-built Huoshenshan (Fire God Mountain) Hospital in Wuhan receives the first batch of #Coronavirus patients https://t.co/vqv7tkaC0t pic.twitter.com/qBwQ568y9k

- China Xinhua News (@XHNews) February 4, 2020

The Chinese government has also prepared eight IL-76 aircraft at Tianhe Airport, Wuhan to transport 58 tons of aid along with a medical team to join the existing 450 military personnel. Many of the medical teams who participated in this medical operation had joined in fighting the SARS and Ebola outbreaks in West Africa.

In addition, the deployed Chinese Military is also tasked with overseeing the delivery of basic necessities to people living in Wuhan. Various parties are trying to keep the public at home to reduce the spread of the virus. All schools in Hubei Province postponed the start of the new semester until an undetermined time.