HealthDay News — A new 1,000-bed hospital just for patients infected with the coronavirus that has caused 830 confirmed illnesses and 26 deaths in China is expected to be completed in the city of Wuhan by Feb. 3, officials said Friday.
The prefabricated hospital being built in Wuhan is modeled after one that was built in Beijing in just six days during the SARS outbreak in 2003, the Associated Press reported. The outbreak has triggered precautions across China. In Beijing, major public events have been canceled and tourist destinations such as the Forbidden City and Shanghai Disneyland have been closed.
Meanwhile, other countries have reported cases of the new coronavirus. South Korea and Japan both confirmed their second cases Friday, and Singapore confirmed its third. Cases have been detected in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States, the AP reported.
In the United States, the new coronavirus has been confirmed in a man who traveled back to Washington state from Wuhan, CBS News reported. On Friday, health officials announced that a Chicago woman in her 60s was identified as the second U.S. patient to be diagnosed with the virus. As of Friday morning, 10 patients in California, one in Texas, and one in Tennessee were all being held in isolation, as doctors wait for test results from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine whether the patients have the coronavirus, CBS News reported.