A new hospital is being quickly built outside of Moscow to treat COVID-19 patients.
Scores of workers with heavy equipment are working quickly to assemble a prefabricated structure in Babenki, about 50 kilometers southwest of the Russian capital.
City officials have said the 500-bed hospital would be ready in the "near future."
Currently, patients in Moscow suspected of having the novel coronavirus are being sent to an infectious-diseases hospital in Kommunarka.
As of March 17, Russia had confirmed more than 100 cases of COVID-19, with over 50 cases in Moscow and no reported deaths.
Russia Rushes To Build Hospital For COVID-19 Treatment
- By RFE/RL
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An aerial view of the construction site for a new infectious-diseases hospital for patients with a suspected novel coronavirus infection.
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Excavators have been deployed at the construction site in Babenki, 50 kilometers southwest of Moscow.
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Another aerial view of the construction site.
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An existing Moscow hospital has already been turned into a treatment center and quarantine zone exclusively for coronavirus patients, but the city's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has said he wants more capacity, if needed.
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Trucks at the construction site
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Sobyanin says the new hospital is being built in an area without large apartment blocks and would not pose a danger to the local population.
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Construction workers at the site
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From March 18 until May 1, Russia has banned the entry of foreign nationals in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
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Some Russian doctors have questioned the low number of officially reported cases so far, given what they say is the patchy nature of testing.
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The government maintains that it has been totally transparent about its handling of the crisis, and that its statistics are accurate.
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The head of Russia's Bashkortostan region, about 1,200 kilometers east of Moscow, has said his region would also build a new hospital within the next few months to treat coronavirus patients.
