China rapidly building coronavirus hospital in Wuhan

China is rapidly building a new thousand-bed hospital to treat victims of a new coronavirus in Wuhan, mobilising machinery to get it ready by early next week, state media says.

The new hospital is being built around a holiday complex originally intended for local workers, set in gardens by a lake on the outskirts of the city, the Changjiang Daily reported, adding that prefabricated buildings which will have 1,000 beds will be put up.

Building machinery, including 35 diggers and 10 bulldozers, arrived at the site, with the aim to get the new facility ready by February 2.

The hospital aims to copy the experience of Beijing in 2003, when the city battled Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). 

As of now, the coronavirus has killed 26 people in China and infected more than 830, the government said. Most of the cases are in Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have originated late last year.