Hospital sets aside beds for families with kids

Challenging work to arrange catering, accommodation, material distribution

Shanghai's current largest fangcang, or makeshift hospital, has set aside 900 beds to treat families with children under the age of 18 infected with COVID-19.

The section of the fangcang, which was built at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre, started admissions on Monday and has since received 177 people with infections, including 89 children, according to Shanghai Children's Medical Center, which provides medical treatment in this section with Shanghai No 10 People's Hospital.

The youngest patient, a 2-year-old, arrived on Monday night and was accompanied by his mother, who had also tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

"These children are placed in adjacent beds with their adult family members, and all those with minor infections aged below 18 qualify to be sent here with their family members," the medical center said in a release.

It added that parents with negative nucleic acid test results are not able to accompany their children in the fangcang due to the laws and protocols of epidemic prevention.

According to the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, infected people must be separated from those who are not infected, Wu Qianyu, a senior inspector of the municipal health commission, said at a news conference on Monday.

The child-parent section at the fangcang was a continuation of the medical center's practice at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center over the past week.

On Sunday, a 59-member team from the center was notified by the city's health commission to move this special section into the fangcang at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre for the operation of a larger child-parent section.

Child patients will be sent to the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, the designated hospital to receive COVID-19 cases, if their parents are not infected and cannot accompany them for the medical treatment, the city's health authority said.

Nurses take care of the child patients in their wards around the clock, and are responsible for not only their medical treatment and health observation, but also their daily needs, such as feeding and bathing as well as changing diapers for infants and toddlers.

Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center said that more medical workers have been dispatched from the Children's Hospital of Fudan University and the Shanghai Children's Medical Center to support the treatment and nursing teams at the designated medical institution.

The operation of the child-parent section of the fangcang at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre signifies that this makeshift hospital with a capacity of 15,000 beds has become fully operational.

More than 2,200 doctors and nurses from 11 Shanghai hospitals have been stationed there to give treatment.

Chen Erzhen, commander-in-chief of this fangcang and vice-president of Shanghai Ruijin Hospital, said that it is a challenge to arrange catering, accommodation, material distribution and logistical support for all the individuals there.

It relies not only on a logistical team of more than 1,000 members, but also a strong information security system, he said.