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China Opens New Hospitals for Virus Patients, Deaths Top 560

Associated Press

   BEIJING - China on Thursday finished building a second new hospital to
   isolate and treat patients of a virus that has killed more than 560
   people and continues to spread, disrupting travel and people's lives
   and fueling economic fears.

   A first group of patients was expected to start testing a new antiviral
   drug, as China also moved people with milder symptoms into makeshift
   hospitals at sports centers, exhibition halls and other public spaces.

   The health care system in the central city of Wuhan, where the outbreak
   was first detected in December, has been overwhelmed with the thousands
   of ill patients. A new, 1,500-bed hospital specially built for virus
   patients opened days after a 1,000-bed hospital with prefabricated
   wards and isolation rooms began taking patients.

   Other treatment centers had tight rows of simple cots lining cavernous
   rooms. And Wuhan had another 132 quarantine sites with more than 12,500
   beds, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

   Chinese health authorities reported 563 deaths and another sharp jump
   in the number of confirmed cases to 28,018. Outside mainland China, at
   least 260 cases have been confirmed, including two deaths in Hong Kong
   and the Philippines.

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