Shanghai accelerates makeshift hospital construction as COVID cases remain

Shanghai will accelerate construction of makeshift hospitals to offer more beds to patients and take measures to enhance the efficiency of patient transportation to cope with the locally transmitted COVID-19 infections in the city. 

The city reported 23,513 new locally transmitted infections on Friday, 3,590 of whom are confirmed cases and the rest are asymptomatic.  A total of 969 patients were discharged from the hospital and 19,800 were released from medical observation on Friday, going back home for health monitoring.

At present, a total of 13 severe cases are receiving treatment at hospitals, among which 12 are elders between the ages of 70 to 93 with serious underlying diseases and suffering from high risks because of their age. All of them have not been vaccinated.

According to Ding Bo who is responsible for patient transport from the epidemic prevention and control office in Shanghai, the city has reinforced that patients should be assigned beds at makeshift hospitals before admissions procedures to improve work efficiency.

In addition, a list of discharged patients should be sent in advance to sub-districts and the districts they live in, so that neighborhood committees can be prepared to receive them.

A digital patient transport platform launched by the municipal big data center has begun a trial run, offering QR codes containing information of transport vehicles and makeshift hospitals for rapid data sharing.

"Some exhibition halls, indoor-stadiums and schools have been temporarily reconfigured into quarantine sites. We'll disinfect the venues and guarantee they are safe for public use when the current wave is over," Ding said.