London's Nightingale Hospital to open this week

A temporary hospital at the ExCel exhibition centre in east London is on track to open this week, the project's chief operating officer said on Tuesday, as the country's coronavirus death toll rose to 1,789. The number of confirmed cases rose by 14% to 25,150 as of Tuesday, the Department for Health and Social Care said. The Nightingale Hospital will initially provide up to 500 beds equipped with ventilators and oxygen, with the capacity of increasing up to several thousand beds if required.

The hospital's open plan ward is designed to enable staff to have full visibility of patients so they can be well cared for, the chief operating officer said. The Excel Centre in the Docklands district of east London has more than 900,000 sq feet of exhibition space and normally hosts industry events for sectors like defense, travel, hospitality and property. The NHS, with the help of the military, is also setting up two new temporary hospitals in Birmingham and Manchester.