Two specialized coronavirus hospitals in Wuhan, the city at the epicenter of the outbreak, will start taking patients on February 3 and 6 respectively, the mayor of Wuhan announced on Friday.

Huoshenshan Hospital, which covers an area of 34,000 square meters, will provide 1,000 beds for patients who will be admitted from February 3.

Leishenshan Hospital will take patients from February 6. It's 75,000 square meters in size and will be able to accommodate 1,500 patients.

The two makeshift hospitals will treat patients infected with the novel coronavirus and follow the model of Xiaotangshan Hospital in Beijing, which was built in response to the SARS epidemic in 2003.