The massive construction project is expected to take just 10 days (Picture: Xinhua News Agency)

The scale of the coronavirus outbreak at the city where it broke out is all too clear in these pictures of diggers and bulldozers.

They are building a huge hospital that will have enough space for 1,000 patients of the disease in the city of Wuhan.

And they are going to do it in just 10 days.

The gargantuan engineering project is being carried out on a garden site near a lake on the outskirts of the city that had previously been earmarked as a holiday complex.


Footage shows 35 diggers and 10 bulldozers excavating the area last night and is due to be completed by February 3.



The Changjiang Daily newspaper reported: ‘The construction of this project is to solve the shortage of existing medical resources.

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Aerial photo shows mechanical equipment working at the construction site of a special hospital in the Caidian District of Wuhan (Picture: Xinhua News Agency)

‘Because it will be prefabricated buildings, it will not only be built fast but it also won’t cost much.’

In 2003 a Beijing hospital was completed within a week after an outbreak of SARS. Within two-months it had treated one-seventh of the country’s patients, giving the Wuhan government confidence it would complete its own project within the time frame.

The Changjiang Daily said the Beijing hospital had ‘created a miracle in the history of medical science.’

The Chinese government has shut transportation in at least 10 cities around Wuhan with the wearing of masks now mandatory, affecting 33 million people as efforts to stop the spread of the disease intensify.

The 1,000-bed hospital is expected to be completed by 3 February to cope with the increasing number of people affected by the coronavirus (Picture: FeatureChina)

Wuhan will follow Beijing’s Sars treatment model to build the special hospital (Picture: Xinhua News Agency)

Shop shelves are emptying as people stock up in anticipation of an extended period of isolation, pictures show.

On the eve of the Lunar New Year, one of China’s most important holidays, many public events are being cancelled and major tourist attractions such as the Forbidden City and Disneyland shut.

Coronavirus symptoms are similar to cold and flu but can worsen to pneumonia.

The majority of cases have been in and around Wuhan, but there have been reports in South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, the United States, Thailand and Vietnam, thought due to people who had recently traveled to the Chinese city.

In the UK 14 people have been tested as a precaution and airports are screening passengers travelling from the virus’ source.

The outbreak has so far claimed 25 lives and infected more than 800 others, according to media reports (Picture: FeatureChina)

The upcoming hospital will cover 25,000 square meters (Picture: Xinhua News Agency)

The Wuhan outbreak is suspected to have begun from animals sold at a food market in the city with one report saying it made the jump to humans from snakes leading to some dubbing it ‘snake flu’.

The market is closed for investigation.

The World Health Organisation has not declared the outbreak a global emergency.

The coronavirus is related to the common cold as well as more serious illnesses, such as Sars.

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