Medical workers from across the country sign their names on the back of a volunteer before they leave Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province, on March 29. WEI LAI/FOR CHINA DAILY

Building a 1,000-bed hospital in just 10 days to treat novel coronavirus patients in Wuhan, Hubei province, clearly impressed the host of a television show in the United States.

On Jan 28, Trevor Noah, who presents The Daily Show, told viewers: "Ten days to build a hospital! There's no other country that can do anything that fast."

Noah was referring to Huoshenshan Hospital, or Fire God Mountain Hospital, a specialized facility for patients infected with the virus. It occupies 25,000 square meters in the western suburbs of Wuhan, the city hardest hit by the virus on the Chinese mainland.

The project has been hailed as a "miracle" in China's fight against the contagion, together with Leishenshan Hospital, or Thunder God Mountain Hospital, in the city's Jiangxia district, which has 1,500 beds and was completed within 12 days.

Chen Weiguo, who headed construction of the two hospitals, said completing them in such a short time initially appeared to be "mission impossible", but his team had worked at "record China speed".

More than 34,000 workers from around the country, together with over 4,000 managers, worked round-the-clock in a race against time to build the hospitals to provide treatment for more patients, said Chen, president of State-owned China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Co.

The makeshift facilities, modeled on Xiaotangshan Hospital in Beijing, which was built in a week during the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, outbreak in 2003, have played key roles in containing the outbreak in Wuhan.