WUHAN — The Central China metropolitan of Wuhan will follow Beijing's SARS treatment model to build a special hospital for admitting patients infected in the outbreak of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus.

The Wuhan headquarters for the control and treatment of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus said on Jan 24 the upcoming hospital designed to have an area of 25,000 square meters will be put into use by Feb 3.

The special hospital planned to accommodate 1,000 beds is expected to pool medical resources to provide isolated and efficient treatment for infected pneumonia patients.

In the treatment and control of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, that spread rapidly on the Chinese mainland in 2003, Beijing built the Xiaotangshan Hospital, a temporary medical center in the northern suburb of the city.

The Wuhan headquarters said Wuhan will have the hospital built near the Wuhan Workers' Sanatorium in the Caidian district in the western suburb to treat patients infected with the new coronavirus.

Construction equipment has been sent to the hospital construction site.

The headquarters said the upcoming hospital will follow the building model of the Xiaotangshan Hospital to use movable plank houses so that the construction will be completed quickly.

The Xiaotangshan Hospital was built in seven days. The hospital admitted one-seventh of the SARS patients in the country within two months, creating a miracle in the history of medicine.

Currently, novel coronavirus patients are being treated in several designated hospitals and 61 fever clinics in Wuhan.

China on Jan 23 locked down Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei, in an unprecedented effort to curb the spread of the epidemic, after it resulted in 25 deaths, including 24 in Hubei and one in northern China's Hebei province.