(Yicai Global) April 12 -- An office building located along the Huangpu river in Shanghai has been converted into a makeshift hospital for Covid-19 patients and will be put into use soon.

It is the first time during the city’s recent battle with Covid-19 that an office block has been repurposed as a temporary hospital.

Realtor Pacific Rehouse bought it for CNY1.4 billion at auction eight days ago. The firm “answered the government’s call that night to launch the design and construction of a temporary hospital to accommodate more than 3,000 people,” a company official told Yicai Global.

“Shanghai was in a critical period when we purchased the property,” the person said.

The office block has 17 floors, each about 2,500 square meters, with seven rooms. Each room has an area of more than 200 sqm, with around 25 beds and free WiFi.

Shanghai reported 994 new confirmed Covid-19 cases and 22,348 asymptomatic infections yesterday, according to local health officials. As of April 10, the city had reported 200,000 locally transmitted infections during this wave of the pandemic.

Editor: Peter Thomas