New hospital in Wuhan ready for virus patients

The virus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan is stepping up efforts to contain the epidemic, with the city's largest newly-built makeshift hospital opening its doors to patients.

The Guanggu Rihai hospital has nearly 3,700 beds, with every 20 beds as a separate ward, China's Central Television (CCTV) reported.

So far 15 makeshift hospitals have been completed in Wuhan, housing more than 9,000 patients, state media reported.

Authorities have promised to increase capacity to handle 30,000 patients.

Wuhan is also upgrading more ordinary hospitals into special ones for the virus patients.

The city's maternity and child health care hospital was handed over to a military medical team Thursday after it was upgraded to accommodate virus patients.

Li Dan, director of infection control, made final checks on hospital facilities  before the first patients were moved in.

"We need to finish our tasks within the time limit, but most importantly we need to ensure the safety of the medical team," Li said.

More than 30,000 medical workers from all over the country have been sent to Hubei province since the outbreak of the virus.

Amid intensifying efforts to control the outbreak, inspectors in protective suits have been conducting door-to-door searches to try to find every infected person in the city.

CCTV showed medical workers knocking on doors to conduct daily registrations and check temperatures.

China reported a further fall in new virus cases to 889 on Friday as health officials expressed optimism over containment of the outbreak that has caused more than 2,200 deaths and is spreading elsewhere.