The Forty-first Day: 2 May 2020
The Forty-first Day: 2 May 2020 (182,260 confirmed infected, 28,131 died, in total)
"There are still patients and staff are still caring for patients but there have been no admissions in the past week. The numbers are going down." – London Nightingale Hospital
Built within 9 days, the London Nightingale Hospital, being the first of its kind in the UK, is often compared with the Chinese emergency field hospitals “Huoshenshan” and “Leishenshan” built earlier during this “coronavirus war”.
It was reported that this hospital is designed to accommodate nearly 4,000 beds. During the peak of the pandemic in April, the hospital reportedly had 35 patients. More COVID-19 patients were being cured in ordinary hospitals and were not transferred to this hospital. Now the new cases and death toll in the UK are going down the slope, this hospital is being “vacating” and news reports said it would be “wound down” soon. I am really baffled by these facts. Did the decision makers overestimate the situation, or there was something wrong in utilizing this hospital? Its fate should not have been like this…
I happened to pass by an NHS hospital recently, in which hundreds of people have died of the coronavirus. Warnings and health slogans are posted on its outer fences; some white prefab houses for unknown purposes are built near its entrance; its ambulance team is ready for action at any time. It looked still wartime, so how can a specially built hospital be left unused? I cannot figure out.