MORE BEDS, BETTER TREATMENT

Despite the coldness and darkness before dawn, groups of confirmed patients were transferred by ambulance from designated hospitals and community hospitals across Wuhan to a makeshift hospital converted from a gymnasium on Thursday.

Cai Yuzhong, an emergency physician from Xiangya Second Hospital of Zhongnan University, and his colleagues were busy determining whether the patients would be admitted to the makeshift hospital.

Medical workers of the National Emergency Medical Rescue Team from Shanghai and the provinces of Central China's Hunan, East China's Fujian and Northeast China's Liaoning waited for hours to admit the patients during the rain. They had gathered here Wednesday to make preparations.

"At present, only confirmed patients with mild symptoms have entered the hospital and they have begun to receive isolation and observation and take oral medications," Cai said.

"The patients are in stable condition. Some of them came here voluntarily from their community, while others were transferred from designated hospitals.

"At first, some patients did not quite understand the practice of transferring them to the makeshift hospital and thought that it was irresponsible.

"But we would explain to them patiently that it is the right treatment for them and they can trust us."

Cai said that while strengthening the construction of supporting facilities at makeshift hospitals, the psychological stress of patients should also be considered.

On Feb 3, conversion work started on 13 venues including gymnasiums, sports centers and exhibition centers. As of 7:30 am on Thursday, a total of 328 patients had been transferred to the three makeshift hospitals that opened Wednesday.

The city set up 132 quarantine sites by Tuesday, providing over 12,500 beds to cope with the surging number of patients confirmed or suspected to be infected with the novel coronavirus, said Hu Lishan, deputy Communist Party chief Wuhan, at a press conference on the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus outbreak Wednesday.

As hospital beds are still in short supply, Wuhan is gearing up to use private hospitals, hotels, schools and other places as designated sites for quarantine, observation and treatment of patients.

Hubei has subsidized funds totaling 400 million yuan (over $57 million) on construction of treatment sites across the province.

"I hope that we can help them recover and go home as soon as possible," he said.