A medical worker in Beijing's Ditan Hospital talks to a COVID-19 patient in hospital bed on Tuesday. Photo: Cui Meng/GT

A hundred medical workers from 19 local hospitals have been deployed since Monday to aid the designated hospital for centralized treatment of COVID-19 patients from Beijing's new outbreak, which has led to 106 registered confirmed cases as of press time. 

The medical support teams consist of 24 doctors, 62 nurses, 8 examiners and 6 radiologists from 19 out of 22 municipal-level hospitals in Beijing, in response to an emergency call from Beijing Hospitals Authority, the municipal hospital management center, said Pan Suyan, the center's director.  

The center on Tuesday also dispatched a Beijing-based medical expert who had been fighting in the coronavirus frontline of the once hardest-hit city Wuhan for more than three months to work with the medical team at Ditan Hospital, the local designated hospital, focusing on severe cases.  

The Global Times learned from the publicity department of Capital Medical University of Beijing's Xuanwu Hospital that the hospital received the notification from the center Monday afternoon, and immediately formed a team of six doctors and nurses from the departments of respiratory, radiology and medical laboratory, who went to Ditan Hospital Tuesday morning. 

The medical workers are prepared for the upcoming battle at the frontline, the publicity department said, adding that one member of the support team even cut her long hair.

Many of the workers supported Hubei, the province hit hardest by the coronavirus, or participated in treatment of COVID-19 patients in Beijing months ago.

Beijing reported 27 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, health authorities said Tuesday, bringing the total to 106. 

All 106 confirmed patients registered between Thursday and Monday were receiving treatment in Ditan Hospital. 

Though the hospital has assigned more than 20 doctors and 60 nurses to emergency treatment wards, it still faces pressure from the increasing number of confirmed cases.

"Dozens of patients were hospitalized in one day - it's a very big challenge for medical workers here, physically and mentally, especially in such hot weather," said Ma Shanfang, the director of medical services at Ditan Hospital, Jiankang News, a health-related news agency reported.


Newspaper headline: 100 medical workers rushed to help treat Beijing virus patients