China is racing to build a new hospital in just 10 days to treat patients at the epicenter of a deadly virus outbreak. 

The facility in the central city of Wuhan is expected to be in use by 3 February to serve an increasing number of patients infected by a coronavirus that has left at least 26 people dead and millions on lockdown. 

Workers with excavators and trucks are working around the clock through the Lunar New Year holiday to prepare the site. 

The 1,000-bed hospital is designed to ease the pressure on other local facilities, which have had to cope with thousands of citizens seeking a diagnosis on their symptoms.

"We've mobilized all the workers left in Wuhan to work in shifts to ensure round-the-clock construction," Zhang Chongxi, manager of building group Wuhan Construction, told Xinhua. 

In 2003, China erected a hospital on Beijing's rural outskirts in barely a week to cater to a rapidly rising number of patients suffering from SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

Teams of doctors are also being sent to the quarantine zone to support local medics.