Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan on Saturday required local hospitals to increase efficiency in treating patients amid the novel coronavirus outbreak during her inspection to Wuhan city. 

Sun, who leads a central government group guiding epidemic control work in Hubei Province, inspected two hospitals in Wuhan city, epicenter of the outbreak.  

One of the hospitals is Taikang Tongji Wuhan Hospital, where medics from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have been deployed since Friday. The hospital, with a planned capacity of 860 beds, has taken in 143 coronavirus patients so far. 

Sun thanked the hospital for its positive response, and expressed her appreciation to soldiers for their immediate actions and courage. 

While there have been positive signs, she emphasized that the epidemic is still severe, urging local hospitals to increase the number of beds as soon as possible.