UK opens first coronavirus field hospital after just 9 days of construction

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The UK opens first coronavirus field hospital after just 9 days of construction

The United Kingdom has opened its first emergency coronavirus-treatment hospital after a quickfire nine days of construction that Prince Charles hailed as proving how “the impossible could be made possible.”

The temporary National Health Service Nightingale hospital in London, located at an expo center, is beginning operations Friday with 500 beds outfitted with oxygen tanks and ventilators, according to the BBC. The nearly one million square feet of space there has room for another 3,500 beds, and when fully complete, the facility will be able to treat up to 4,000 patients.

“An example, if ever one was needed, of how the impossible could be made possible and how we can achieve the unthinkable through human will and ingenuity," Prince Charles, who announced its opening Friday, said via video link from his Scottish home of Birkhall.

"To convert one of the largest national conference centers into a field hospital, starting with 500 beds with a potential of 4,000, is quite frankly incredible,” he added.

The facility was built by hundreds of NHS staff, contractors and soldiers from the British Army, the BBC reports. Patients will only be assigned there once their local London hospital has reached capacity, the NHS says.

Charles, who earlier this week emerged from self-isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, said Friday that he was one of “the lucky ones” who only had mild symptoms, but "for some, it will be a much harder journey.”

He expressed his hope that the hospital “is needed for as short a time and for as few people as possible.”