With the new coronavirus outbreak leading to a shortage of hospital beds at its epicenter in Wuhan, China has addressed the issue by simply building a whole new hospital with prefabricated modular container house in just a little more than a week.

The Huoshenshan Hospital has started treating patients infected with the virus only 10 days after construction began on the hospital on January 23.

Staffed by 1,400 medical workers, the 1,000-bed hospital is modeled after Beijing’s Xiaotangshan Hospital, which was built with similar speed during the 2003 SARS outbreak.

Thousands of construction workers pulled long shifts to get the hospital ready for patients as quickly as possible.

The building of the hospital was an event itself with Chinese state media live-streaming footage from the construction site that was watched by tens of millions of social media.

There was a slight hiccup in the project last week when state media proudly reported the completion of the hospital’s first building after just 16 hours of construction… only to be called out for using a stock photo to show the completed building.

Numerous non-stock images have now been published showing the already functioning portions of the hospital.

The new hospital is much needed as the number of infections continues to rise rapidly, particulary in Wuhan.