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 Feb. 3, and it was delivered to Wuhan Union Hospital and put into operation at 5 p.m. on Feb. 5. With a total of 1,564 beds, the temporary hospital of Jianghan received its first patient at 9 p.m. on Feb. 5. Twenty-one medical teams from other provincial-level regions and six hospitals from Wuha 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. On Sunday, Wuhan closed another two makeshift hospitals. One of the two closed hospitals, converted from a sports venue had 1,000 beds with more than 1,000 medical and other staff. A total of 1,056 patients were treated in the hospital since Feb. 12, with no medical staff infected.Another one, covering over 6,100 square meters, had treated 990 patients with 996 beds since Feb. 17.
Meanwhile the World Health Organization (WHO) Sunday evening said in its daily situation report on COVID-19 that the virus has spread to more than 50 countries. Among that new countries are Cambodia, Austria, Hungary, Egypt, Peru, Bulgaria and Maldives.A total of 105,586 confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide as of 10:00 CET on Sunday, an increase of 3,656 infections from the previous day, including 3,610 new cases outside China.
Among 24,727 confirmed cases outside China, 484 people have died of COVID-19, which marked an increase of 71 deaths compared to the previous day.As of Sunday morning, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Faroe Islands, French Guiana, Maldives, Malta, Martinique and Republic of Moldova have reported cases of COVID-19 for the first time in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of countries and regions affected by the coronavirus outside China to 101.
