Workers race against time to build 'high-speed' hospitals

Huoshenshan is scheduled to come into operation on Monday and Leishenshan will follow three days later.

As workers rushed to build the units at "Chinese speed", medical professionals and designers said they would ensure the facilities were safe and reliable, despite the race against time.

In 2003, as head of Beijing's Xiaotangshan Hospital, Zhang Yanling saw an emergency facility built from scratch in just seven days to help contain an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in the capital.

Last week, the 68-year-old traveled to Wuhan as an advisor on the construction of the two prefabricated hospitals.

"The new facilities have better designs and higher standards than Xiaotangshan Hospital," he told China National Radio.

"They will play a significant role in fighting the coronavirus," he said in the interview, adding that the new facilities will be professional hospitals for infectious diseases, rather than simply units to receive and quarantine patients. "They have to meet the highest standards."