On Feb 5, the first makeshift hospital in Wuhan - the capital of central China's Hubei province and the Chinese city hit hardest by the outbreak - began to receive COVID-19 patients. The city had 16 such makeshift medical facilities in total, and by March 10, when the last one closed its doors, over 12,000 patients had received treatment there. 

A separation

Liu Chunfang's first impression of the makeshift hospital was not that good. 

Liu and her husband were diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, and at first they were treated at the same hospital. But on Feb 3, Wuhan began to adopt a system of differentiated treatment. 

Liu's husband, who was in severe condition, was to remain in hospital, while she, with only mild symptoms, was transferred to Wuchang makeshift hospital, which had been newly created in a stadium.

"Who knows when we will see each other again," she said, tears rolling down her face as she bid farewell to her husband. 

Upon arrival at the new facility, Liu said she "felt I was abandoned." She barely slept the first night. Her low fever persisted, the light was on all night, and there was constant coughing in the stadium. 

The nurses found Liu in low spirits, and tried to comfort her. They told her to take her medicine on time.

The second night was even tougher. She developed symptoms of asthma, chest pain, and high fever. Thanks to the medical workers' careful treatment, she finally got through the hardest night.

As time went on, Liu Chunfang found that the medical workers in the makeshift hospital faced even more challenges than those in ordinary hospitals. As well as playing the role of a nurse, they also sometimes had to act as a caregiver and even a cleaner.

Through their protective clothing, she saw that many of them seemed to be younger than her daughter.

"They are doing a really hard job; each one needs to take care of more than 20 patients," Liu said. "I always told them to take care of themselves.”

A cop 

Fang Chengyi, 58, is a traffic policeman in Wuhan. Since Jan 24, the Chinese New Year's Eve, he had been working on the anti-virus frontline.

In early February he was diagnosed with the virus, and he began to receive treatment in Wuchang makeshift hospital on Feb 11. When talking with other patients, he found most of them, more or less, were under mental stress. He suggested they took their minds off the situation by painting.

There was a teenage boy in the hospital named Fu. A number that appeared in one of his paintings - 106 - caught Fang's attention. It turned out to the number of days until his college entrance examination.

From that day on, Fang began to give more care to his young friend and kindly reminded others to keep quiet when the teenager worked on his exam preparation. Occasionally, Fang would invite the boy to group activities, to help him relax a bit.

Towards the end of his time there, Fang began to think about his plans after being discharged from hospital. "I heard that recovered patients are encouraged to donate plasma. I will definitely join the donation after being cured," he said with a big smile.

A new mom

Yin Huiying gave birth to a girl in Wuhan's hospital on Jan 26. The COVID-19 outbreak was raging at the time and she was quite unnerved when she left the hospital and went home. Both she and her husband wore masks.

Yet what she feared most still happened. On Feb 23, Yin went to hospital with a low fever and was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus two days later. 

She had only mild symptoms and was sent to Wuchang makeshift hospital. The day was Feb 26; her baby girl was just one month old. 

In the makeshift hospital, Yin couldn't stop her tears while looking at pictures of her daughter on her phone. Her breast milk could not be used and had to be pumped out and discarded. It was painful - she would be drenched in sweat after each pump - and the thought that her baby wouldn’t be able to have her milk made her even more heartbroken. 

The new mom's situation was noticed by the medical staff, and they gave her as much emotional support and nutritional care as they could.

In the first few days, all Yin thought about was when she would be discharged. But later on, she began to think about doing some volunteer work in the makeshift hospital. 

"I can interpret for the medical staff and local patients who can't speak Mandarin. I can also help with the clean-up," she said.

On the morning of March 5, Yin was notified that her test result was negative.

Currently, all patients treated in the 16 makeshift hospitals in Wuhan have been released after recovery or have been moved to designated hospitals. For the seven consecutive days up to Monday, Wuhan reported no cases of new infections.