More cities seek to build Xiaotangshan-style hospitals

More cities have issued plans to build a Xiaotangshan-style hospital to ease the shortage of beds for patients infected by the novel coronavirus after Wuhan, the center of epidemic, has done so.

The hospital in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region started to build on Wednesday and was designed to be ready for use after a week of construction.

The 200-bed hospital is expected to receive patients, as new confirmed cases keep increasing in the region.

As of midnight Jan 31, the number of confirmed pneumonia cases caused by the novel coronavirus rose to 100 in the region with an increase of 13 cases a day, according to the provincial Health Commission on Saturday morning.

Guiyang, capital city of southwest China's Guizhou, announced it would build a 404-bed hospital within 20 days to curb the spread of the epidemic, the municipal health commission said on Thursday.

Beijing has also announced it would rebuild Xiaotangshan Hospital, which was used solely for SARS patients in 2003.