4. Ensuring the supply of medical resources
In order to alleviate the shortage of medical resources in Hubei, there has been 380 medical teams comprising of more than 42,000 doctors, nurses, infection control practitioners and public health experts from all over China to provide their help in Wuhan as of February 25. What’s more, each province has been paired with one prefecture-level city of Hubei other than Wuhan to deliver medical aid and vital personal protective equipment to the people of the whole province. In addition, with the help of telemedicine and artificial intelligence, hundreds of thousands of doctors across the country have been conducting online consultations, greatly easing the pressure on the overall Chinese and Wuhan healthcare system and effectively reducing the number of walk-in patients and thus their risks of infection exposure.
On the other hand, the Leishenshan Hospital and Huoshenshan Hospital, Wuhan versions of Beijing Xiaotangshan Hospital in the fight against SARS in 2003, were established in Wuhan, the design and construction of which was completed in 12 days and 9 days respectively, providing more than 14,000 isolation beds. Another 30,000 beds for mild patients were also managed in mobile cabin hospitals that were remodeled day and night. Moreover, to deal with potential increasing patient volume in other provinces, hospitals for fever patients were designated and regular wards were transformed into isolation wards. In addition to covering all the individual cost of treatment, the government also fully supports the acceleration of basic research and clinical trials of COVID-19, and its vaccine development.