UAE turns Dubai World Trade Centre into hospital for 3,000 coronavirus patients

Authorities in the UAE have converted the venerable Dubai World Trade Centre into a field hospital that can house 3,000 coronavirus patients.

The move aims to support efforts to ramp up UAE’s capacity to treat people infected with the virus.

Staff were putting the finishing touches to the field hospital on Wednesday. At full capacity, hundreds of doctors and nurses would work at the site in central Dubai. It is understood there would be a staggered roll out of available beds from Thursday, rising to precisely 3,030 if needed.

The centre is one of two field hospitals to boost the city’s bed capacity for coronavirus patients from the current 4,000 to 5,000. Authorities are planning to boost Dubai’s bed capacity to up to 10,000 or more, Director-General of the Dubai Health Authority Humaid al-Qutami said at a press conference last week.

“We will have more than two field hospitals ready in Dubai in the coming days to be ready for any situation,” al-Outami added.

Across the country, mobile testing centers have been also launched as part of the UAE’s rapidly expanding coronavirus testing program. The country is conducting 32,000 tests at its recently opened drive-thru test centers and has also established a massive testing laboratory.

The World Trade Centre set-up is similar to London’s ExCel centre, which was also turned into a 4,000-bed hospital named NHS Nightingale.