After Covid-19 emerged in Wuhan a year ago China had all but contained its spread, but now it is racing to finish a large prefabricated village to quarantine more than 4,000 people near the city of Shijiazhuang, some 294km southwest of Beijing, after an outbreak of the virus there this month.
Spread over some 44 hectares, the camp will have 4,156 rooms to house contacts of people who have tested positive for the disease, reports Xinhua.
As of noon yesterday, there had been 967 confirmed Covid cases in Shijiazhuang since 2 January.
Authorities have despatched 3,470 medical workers from across China to the city to help contain the outbreak. Its approximately 11 million people are now in strict lockdown with schools closed. Some 5,000 testing sites have been set up to test every resident, BBC reported.
Around 4,000 construction workers assembled the camp working day and night from 13 January, reports CNN.
Each room measures approximately 18 sq m and will have an en-suite bathroom and shower, furniture, Wi-Fi, and a television set, CNN said, citing state broadcaster CCTV.
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 98,544, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, while the official death toll stands at 4,801
