Veteran engineer Wu Zhizhen is always on site and on the phone. To speed up the construction, he stays alert.

Emulating Beijing's response to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, when it built Xiaotangshan Hospital in seven days to care for SARS patients, the epicenter of the current coronavirus outbreak – Wuhan City in central China – is now building a new 1,000-bed hospital to treat patients infected with the novel coronavirus.

It has been named Huoshen Mountain Hospital and is expected to be completed in six days, according to Wuhan authorities. Construction has already begun in the city's western suburb.

Hundreds of machines work at the same time. Their common goal is to build a new hospital to combat the new coronavirus.

"We have just received some high-density polyethylene material. That's a lot, but we don't have enough trucks. The plan is to get those things tomorrow. I am coordinating to see if we can get them today. We have to get things done ahead of schedule," said Wu.

The high-density polyethylene material will be used to prevent polluted water and the virus from leaking into the land. The site is next to some residential buildings, and the construction plan has to ensure residents' safety.

"We have no technical problems, but we don't have enough time to purchase materials and equipment," said Zhou Pan, Wuhan Construction's deputy manager.

They are not only working on a highly tight schedule but also are short-staffed. Pan's company and three others are working on a site covering an area of 50,000 square meters. The company had to call on workers to give up their Spring Festival holiday.

Wu only rests five hours a day. He said the sense of responsibility drives him to work tirelessly despite having heart problems.

"As a Wuhan resident and a construction worker, I have an obligation to contribute all I can," Wu said.

Click here to read more about the new coronavirus cases in Wuhan.

(CGTN's Pan Zhaoyi also contributed to the story.)