Over 600 medics sent to Beijing's reopened SARS hospital

2020-03-18

An aerial view of the Xiaotangshan Hospital in Beijing, March 17, 2020. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

Over 600 medical workers from 22 Beijing hospitals have been sent to a SARS treatment hospital that reopened Monday amid the capital's mounting pressure to handle imported coronavirus cases, local authorities said Tuesday.

From 5:00 p.m. to midnight on Monday, the hospital received 35 passengers waiting for health screenings from Beijing Capital International Airport, with one person traveling from the United Kingdom being confirmed, according to the Beijing Municipal Health Commission.

The interior scene of the Xiaotangshan Hospital in Beijing, March 13, 2020. (Photo by Pan Zhiwang/Xinhua)

The Xiaotangshan hospital, located in the city's northern suburb, has more than 1,600 beds after renovation. It is used for receiving inbound passengers awaiting health screening as well as suspected and confirmed imported cases in mild conditions.

The hospital was formerly used to quarantine and treat SARS patients, but Beijing started to renovate the hospital on Jan. 30 as a precaution in the face of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Some 15,000 people worked on the renovation, which was completed on March 15. A total of 59,584 square meters have been added, and 22,483 square meters have been renovated, according to the commission.