The video released on Chinese state media on Sunday, set to an uplifting melody, shows a healthy baby crying in a delivery room in Hubei province as it is swiftly taken away to be examined.

But the presence of four doctors in protective hazmat suits jars with the supposedly happy mood. The baby’s 28-year-old mother, still being treated on the operating table in the footage, is highly suspected of having Wuhan’s deadly coronavirus.

Far from the more optimistic messaging of China’s strictly regulated media, desperate medical staff in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicentre of the virus that has so far officially killed 56 and infected 1,975, have been appealing for more supplies and back-up as they struggle to contain the health emergency.

Volunteers reportedly rushed with supplies to hospitals after at least 24 in Wuhan and other, smaller nearby cities, put out calls for public donations of supplies including face masks, goggles and medical gowns.

Medics have also warned they are short-staffed and out of hospital beds, prompting the authorities to send 450 military doctors as back-up, and pledging to build two new hospitals within weeks.