Two makeshift, modular hospitals, Huoshenshan and Leishenshan, are set for completion during the first week of February in Wuhan, China, after just a few days of construction to treat victims of the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV, reports Construction Times, an independent Chinese construction publication.

Wuhan officials were requested to build Huoshenshan Hospital on Jan. 23, and crews began leveling the 50,000-sq-meter site the next night, excavating about150,000 cu meters of earth, said the publication, an ENR publishing partner.

The building area encompasses 25,000 sq m, and will include 1,000 beds, with completion expected by Feb. 3. Construction Times reports that there are nearly 700 project managers, more than 4,000 workers working 24/7 in two shifts and nearly 1,000 large-scale pieces of equipment and transport vehicles on site.

As of Jan. 30, site leveling, sand backfilling and HDPE membrane laying had been completed, and 95% of the foundation concrete pouring was done. This allowed crews to begin mobilizing, modifying and on-site hoisting the modular units. Other work includes pipeline trench excavation and fit-out of a sewage treatment “room.”

The city began work on the Leishenshan Hospital on Jan. 25, with a total construction area of about 30,000 sq ms, accommodating about 1,500 beds and providing 2,000 medical staff with living and working space.

Construction Times reports that work will be complete on Feb. 4, and the hospital delivered for use by Feb. 5. As of a Jan. 30 report, construction had reached  40% completion. There will be a total of 1,518 modular containers used, with about 300 sets of off-site modifications completed and 30 hoistings that had occurred on site. 

As crews race to build the hospitals, construction in many parts of China has come to a standstill.

With many project sites shut down already due to the Chinese Spring Festival, also known as the Lunar New Year, 10 provinces and cities—including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Liaoning, Yunnan and Jilin—issued notices to delay the resumption of work until no earlier than Feb 9.

Many local housing and rural-urban departments have issued suspensions of work as well, including Henan, Nanjing, Tianjin, Jinan, Hefei and Dongguan.

Construction firms are not allowed to start projects without permission, Construction Times reports.