Coronavirus hospital set to open in Wuhan with 1,400 military medical staff

First temporary hospital completed in time for operation on Monday with PLA airlifting in personnel and supplies on direct orders from Xi Jinping

Force includes doctors with experience from Sars and Ebola outbreaks

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The Chinese military is sending 1,400 medical staff, some with experience from the previous Sars and Ebola outbreaks, to treat coronavirus patients in Wuhan. Photo: AP

Published: 4:44pm, 2 Feb 2020Updated: 12:47am, 15 Feb 2020

China’s military is boosting its medical team in Wuhan – epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak – to 1,400 personnel, on the direct orders of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

They will staff the first completed temporary hospital which has been built from scratch in response to the crisis and is due to open on Monday.

The PLA Air Force began airlifting medical personnel and supplies to Wuhan, in the central Chinese province of Hubei, on Sunday morning in what was described as its largest non-military transport operation since the 2010 Yushu earthquake. A defence ministry statement said the deployment had been personally approved by Xi.

Eight IL-76 aircraft arrived at Wuhan’s Tianhe airport on Sunday, carrying 58 tonnes of supplies as well as doctors and nurses to join the 450 military medical personnel already in the city. Many have experience in fighting the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak in 2003, as well as Ebola in West Africa in 2014.

The medical staff will be deployed to the Huoshenshan hospital, which was constructed in eight days and formally handed over to military control on Sunday specifically to care for coronavirus patients. A second temporary hospital, Leishenshan, is also going up at top speed in the city and is expected to be operational on Wednesday.

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