Wuhan shuts hospitals amid drop in COVID-19
Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak in central China’s Hubei Province, on Monday suspended another temporary hospital as the number of COVID-19 patients continued to drop in the city.
The temporary hospital of Jianghan, which was converted from the existing
international exhibition center of Wuhan, closed at 3 p.m., bringing the number
of closed temporary hospitals to 14.
The city has began suspending operations of its emergency makeshift hospitals, which were converted from public facilities for the treatment of patients with COVID-19.To treat patients with mild symptoms and isolate the source of infection, Wuhan converted public venues such as exhibition centers and gymnasiums into 16 temporary hospitals.
The conversion work of the temporary hospital of Jianghan began at 5 p.m. on February 3, and it was delivered to Wuhan Union Hospital and put into operation at 5 p.m. on February 5. With a total of 1,564 beds, the temporary hospital of Jianghan received its first patient at 9 p.m. on February 5. Twenty-one medical teams from other provincial-level regions and six hospitals from Wuhan worked in the hospital.
Over the past 34 days, the temporary hospital of Jianghan received a total of 1,848 patients, saw 521 patients being transferred to other hospitals and 1,327 patients discharged. It had the most available beds, admitted the most patients and saw the most discharged patients among all the temporary hospitals in Wuhan.
Some 12,000 patients were treated in all of Wuhan’s temporary hospitals, according to the city’s COVID-19 control headquarters. The other two temporary hospitals remaining in operation are expected to close Tuesday, the headquarters said.
The medical staff who had been deployed to the makeshift hospitals will remain on standby. The provincial health commission said earlier that Hubei will gradually shut down temporary hospitals and cut the number of hospitals designated for the disease while maintaining strict prevention and control measures. -Xinhua