Leishenshan Hospital gets ready for novel coronavirus patients

The second emergency specialty field hospital built in Wuhan, Hubei province, to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak, is scheduled to start treating patients on Thursday.

Leishenshan Hospital entered its final stage of construction by Wednesday afternoon. All 3,300 prefabricated units used as patients' rooms in the medical isolation zone, which is the core construction part of the hospital, have been hoisted and entered the phase of interior decoration.

Each unit has been equipped with a cabinet that links each patient room to hallways. The cabinet enables medical staff to deliver daily necessities or medical products without the need to enter the room and prevent cross infection. It also has ultraviolet light to disinfect the supplies during the delivery.

Items including air conditioners, cables, televisions and electric lights have also been placed in each unit.

The temporary hospital consists of a medical isolation zone, a living zone for medical staff and a logistics area. It can accommodate 1,500 patients after its completion.

Devices used in intensive care units, operating rooms, clinical laboratories as well as other departments were already transported to the hospital and have been installed. Equipment for blood and urine tests, for example, was already installed in the clinical laboratories and will able to examine 300 blood samples and 210 urine samples per hour.

Most of the rooms are depressurized and have a special ventilation system to prevent viruses from spreading out of the hospital.

Construction of seven dormitory buildings for hospital staff members has also been completed.

Builders began work on Leishenshan Hospital on Jan 25, modeled on Beijing's Xiaotangshan Hospital, which treated severe acute respiratory syndrome cases in 2003.

More than 12,000 workers took part in the construction.

Liu Jintao from Shenyang, Liaoning province, chose to stay on duty in Wuhan during the Lunar New Year holiday.

After the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Liu, who works for China State Railway Investment Construction Group Co, was transferred to the construction site and was responsible for directing thousands of vehicles entering and exiting the site every day.

To prevent the spread of the virus, Liu wore a face mask all the time, which made him shout even louder than usual.

"I dared not to drink water regularly. Because drinking water means I would have to take off the mask," he said.

Liu said he called his family in Shenyang every night to tell them that he was safe."There would be no home without our country. Protecting Wuhan is protecting my home and everyone's home," he added.