In the midst of the current Covid outbreak in Beijing, which has resulted in the tightening of social distance restrictions and the prohibition of restaurant dining, Beijing reopened a makeshift hospital last used during the 2003 Sars pandemic and set aside 4,000 hospital beds.
‘Beijing reopens Xiaotangshan makeshift hospital for Covid patients from Sunday amid latest flare-up’, state-run Global Times reported on Sunday.
Work on reopening Beijing’s Xiaotangshan Hospital began with the first wave of the Covid outbreak in January 2020. The hospital, which was erected in a week in 2003 to treat patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), was decommissioned in 2010.
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According to Li Ang, deputy head of the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, some 4,000 beds have been set up in Beijing for Covid infections, and more venues are being converted into makeshift hospitals in case of necessity.
‘The makeshift hospitals are built to treat mild cases and asymptomatic carriers, which is an effective means to block the spread of the epidemic. It’s also vital to reduce overuse of medical resources and ensure that citizens get medical treatment in time’, said Li, adding that the residents need not panic as there are currently ‘not so many patients in Beijing, but we should plan ahead’.
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