China rushes to build 1,000-bed coronavirus hospital

China is rushing to build a new hospital in a staggering 10 days to treat patients at the epicentre of a deadly virus outbreak that has stricken thousands of people.

This aerial photo shows excavators and trucks at the construction site of a new hospital being built to treat patients from a deadly virus outbreak in Wuhan.

Excavators at the construction site of a new hospital being built to treat patients from a deadly virus outbreak in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province.

Heavy equipment works at a construction site for a field hospital in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province.

Workers unload materials from a truck at the construction site. It is one of two makeshift hospitals that Chinese authorities are rushing to build within a fortnight in the city of 11 million people to relieve medical facilities swamped with patients waiting for hours to see doctors.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, fourth from left, speaks with construction workers at the site of makeshit field hospital being built in Wuhan.

The construction workers all wore masks as mandated by the authorities for the entire population of the city, which has been under lockdown.

They are checked for fevers when they arrived by bus and again during their breaks.

A worker carries a shovel at the construction site of a new hospital being built to treat patients from a deadly virus outbreak in Wuhan.

The 25,000-square-metre hospital will have between 700 and 1,000 beds to treat patients of a pneumonia-like virus that has killed 81 people - mostly in Wuhan - and infected more than 2,700 across the country.

"We've mobilised all the workers left in Wuhan to work in shifts to ensure round-the-clock construction," Zhang Chongxi, general manager of the road and bridge company of Wuhan Construction, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

Workers are seen at the construction site of a new hospital being built to treat patients from a deadly virus outbreak in Wuhan

They worked around a forest of excavators and trucks bringing in prefab material at the site on the southwestern side of the city.

Workers are seen at the construction site of a new hospital being built to treat patients from a deadly virus outbreak in Wuhan

Workers are seen at the construction site of a new hospital being built to treat patients from a deadly virus outbreak in Wuhan.

"We have to work fast to combat the epidemic," a worker in his 30s, who refused to give his name, told AFP.

A worker carries materials at the construction site.

Workers are seen at the construction site of a new hospital being built to treat patients from a deadly virus outbreak in Wuhan.

The outline of a floor began to take shape and electrical switchboards were already up on Monday when AFP reporters visited the site of the facility, dubbed "Fire God Mountain", being built in Wuhan, the central city where the coronavirus first emerged.