The images are staggering. More than fifty backhoe loaders converged this Friday on a vacant lot in Wuhan, epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic which is raging in China, where the authorities want to build a hospital in a week.
According to agency photos and images broadcast on television, dozens of construction machines were busy this Friday morning preparing the ground.
Here is the new hospital in Wuhan (center), the city of 11 million inhabitants at the heart of the epidemic.
The works must be completed in record time and the 25,000 m2 hospital will open on February 3, according to the agency Chine nouvelle.
It will exclusively welcome patients with viral pneumonia of unknown origin, which has infected 830 people since December, including 26 fatally.
The site "will alleviate the shortage of medical resources," the official news agency said. The city of Wuhan, where the vast majority of contamination is concentrated, was placed de facto under quarantine on Thursday, residents are no longer allowed to leave.
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China had already built a hospital in Beijing in record time - a week - during the SARS epidemic in 2003. The site brought together prefabricated buildings.
French from Wuhan: "We left 30 minutes before the airport closed"