When it took less than two weeks to build two field hospitals in Wuhan to tackle the corona virus, China did not exaggerate.

Hoa Than Son field hospital was constructed in 10 days, from January 23 to February 2, with an area of 25,000 m2 with 1,000 beds. Then, Than Than Son field hospital was constructed in 12 days, from January 25 to February 6, with an area of 30,000 m2, with 1,500 beds. New hospitals help reduce pressure on Wuhan as the number of patients increases. Pandemic virus caused by new strain of corona virus (nCoV) has killed 910 people and infected more than 40,000.

Migrant workers and material suppliers across the country are mobilized to rush to build hospitals. Safety precautions taken at the construction site, including body temperature tests, to detect nCoV infections.

China Central Television (CCTV) opens live broadcasts so that the public can watch the construction work in real time. The audience became "supervisors" and they gave the excavators, concrete mixers nicknames such as "Little Blue, Little Pink", based on their colors. On January 28, the live broadcast attracted 18 million views.

Wuhan authorities learned the blueprint of Xiaoyunshan Hospital, a 1,000-bed facility on the outskirts of Beijing built in a week to cope with the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in 2003. This hospital continued Accepting one-seventh of the number of patients infected with the virus in two months and no medical personnel with cross-infection, Chinese state media hailed it as a "medical miracle".

However, a CNN source said that they had to redesign the entire project, not directly using Tieu Suong Son drawing because the terrain conditions and design were completely different.

The "prefabricated" method is the secret to the hospital being built quickly: prefabricated blocks are assembled together instead of built in the usual way. "This construction technique is completely safe," said Thorsten Helbig, co-founder of the German engineering company Knpers Helbig. "It has been used in emergency situations in other parts of the world. The US Department of Defense can quickly set up a field hospital for emergency diagnosis and treatment in almost anywhere."

The high speed of construction is partly due to China's ability to mobilize resources. About 7,000 workers with more than 1,000 machines and vehicles have built Hoa Than Son Hospital. "China has rapid construction experience, even for such large projects," said Yanzhong Hang, an expert from the Council on Foreign Relations, USA.

China ordered mobilization "from high level down. They can accelerate bureaucracy, overcome financial constraints to mobilize all resources," he said. "Technical work is what China is good at. They have experience building fast skyscrapers. Westerners have a hard time imagining this but it's feasible."

"The schedule is very urgent. A hospital of this size usually takes at least a month to build, but it only takes us 10 days," said Shen Kai, construction manager of the Central Construction Bureau of China. builders Hoa Than Son Hospital said. "Our workers work two shifts and the design team even sleeps only two hours a day. Many stay up all night."

The hospital is primarily used to treat patients with confirmed nCoV infection. These include the intensive care unit and common ward ward. In addition, the hospital also has a ward of infection prevention and control, examination and diagnosis.

The rooms in the hospital are raised 30 cm above the ground. Each room is equipped with two beds, a separate toilet and most rooms have a negative pressure system, which means the air pressure in the room is lower than the outside so that the fresh air can flow in one way, prevent microorganisms in the air from spreading out of the room.

Each ward also has a metal compartment with doors on each side for staff to deliver food to patients. Doors cannot be opened simultaneously from both sides. When a door is closed, the UV sterilization system is activated. The opposite door can only be opened after sterilization.

A total of 1,400 military physicians were assigned to treat patients at Hoa Than Son, including 950 from hospitals affiliated to the Army Logistics Support Force, 450 from the medical universities of the continent. military, navy and air force

It is not clear the cost to build two hospitals. Joan Kaufman, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School, said that during the SARS crisis, localities were the payers but they received a range of subsidies from the state, from staff salaries to construction costs. "I think the Wuhan authorities will not have to bear the burden because this is a matter of high priority," Kaufman added.

However, experts say that this hospital is not valid for long-term use. "I would not call the facility in Wuhan a durable hospital and certainly not a full service provider," said Scott Rawlings, from HOK, a global architecture and engineering company. "When we design the solid base, we consider the use and adaptability of the building over the next 75 years, China has no time to do so when designing a new hospital in Wuhan. ".

It is difficult to convert specialized facilities like these two hospitals for other uses. Hospitals may become useless when the crisis is over, sharing the same fate with Xiaoyunshan in Beijing. After the SARS epidemic, Tieu Suong Son was "quietly abandoned," Pan said.

Local people are also worried that the hospital could turn into an outbreak affecting the safety of surrounding residents, although state media claimed the hospital had a good system for treating sewage and waste. The lack of transparency of local authorities in the initial response to the epidemic has led many people to lose confidence.

Chan Wai-keung, a social science lecturer at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said that Wuhan's construction of two field hospitals against pneumonia was too late and expressed doubts about the quality. "The construction of Tieu Suong Son field hospital is too late, but it is better than doing nothing. Institutes specializing in infectious diseases should be built in many places in China before an epidemic breaks out so that immediately run and prevent the virus from spreading when needed ".

Chan worried that the equipment at field hospitals might not be up to the standard because "they were built too quickly" to meet the construction speed. He also said that with the number of patients infected with nCoV exponentially increasing, these hospitals would soon be overburdened.

The effectiveness of new hospitals cannot be determined yet. However, commentator Jasmine Chia wrote in Diplomat that they were effective in the media by making the world admire China's rapid construction capacity. On Xinhua's Thai Facebook page, the live stream of the construction process drew 16,000 shares and 19,000 responses.

Chia said the Chinese government desperately needs to show this capability, as nCoV is causing damage to the Chinese economy and the number of infections has not shown signs of slowing down.

"By showing the process of building a hospital, China is trying to send a message that it is acting quickly and controlling the situation," Chia wrote. "However, the death toll continues to rise and the world continues to watch in fear."