RTThu, 13 Feb 2020 17:53 UTC
© Global Look Press / Xiao YijiuA medical worker at Suizhou Central Hospital in Suizhou, central China's Hubei Province.
Hundreds of military medics will descend on coronavirus-stricken Wuhan to help tackle the epidemic as the number of confirmed cases worldwide surpasses 60,000, with the death toll leaping over 1,300.
The first installment of 1,400 military medical personnel touched down in the city in central China worst affected by the ongoing viral epidemic on Thursday, the Chinese Defense Ministry reported.
The medics represent several branches of the Chinese armed forces, including the Navy, Air Force, armed police, logistic and strategic support forces, and even the Rocket Force.
The current reinforcements are not the first the Chinese military has sent to the region. Extra medical staffers have been relocated to the city to man two makeshift hospitals that were built in mere days earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Chinese state media reported that Jiang Chaoliang, the head of the Communist Party in Hubei province, and Ma Guoqiang, the party chief in the provincial capital, Wuhan, were both removed from their posts. Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong will replace the provincial head, while Wang Zhonglin, the party chief in Jinan, will take on the mantle in Wuhan.
It was not immediately clear what prompted the ousters. Chinese state media tabloid
Global Times reported that an
"inspection" was carried out by the central government in Hubei and "a number of local officials have been questioned and punished for failing to fulfill their duties in the prevention and control work."
Comment: China is pulling out all the stops to
handle its health crisis, with the building of a second dedicated hospital near completion:
© China Daily via REUTERSAn aerial view shows the newly completed Huoshenshan Hospital taken on February 2, 2020.
The construction of the two hospitals in Wuhan, the city in central China worst affected by the ongoing viral epidemic, was ordered to keep the disease contained and prevent the risk of spreading the virus. It is consistent with Beijing's way of dealing with the 2013 SARS outbreak, when a temporary hospital was erected north of the capital in just one week.
Huoshenshan was built near Zhiyin Lake in southwestern Wuhan by some 7,000 carpenters, plumbers, electricians and other construction specialists working around the clock. About 800 pieces of heavy equipment worked simultaneously to get the job done, China's Xinhua news agency reported.
The new hospital is staffed by doctors, nurses and other personnel provided by the Chinese military, who sent 1,400 people to man it. Huoshenshan has 30 intensive care units, double-sided cabinets in which doctors can examine patients without entering isolation wards, robots to deliver food and medicine and take samples from patients, and a video system linked to the main military hospital in Beijing.
Watching the lightning-fast construction of the hospital via a live-stream became a source of national entertainment in China. Leishenshan Hospital is expected to be completed on Wednesday, with its construction also having taken 10 days. It will open its doors to patients on Thursday.
Comment: China is pulling out all the stops to handle its health crisis, with the building of a second dedicated hospital near completion: