BEIJING (REUTERS, XINHUA) - China's Wuhan city, the centre of the outbreak of the new coronavirus, will build a second dedicated hospital to treat patients, state media the People's Daily reported on Saturday (Jan 25).

The virus outbreak has killed 56 people in China.

Construction of the hospital, designed to have 1,300 beds, is scheduled to be completed in half a month.

The hospital, named Leishenshan Hospital, is expected to add around 1,000 beds for the patients, according to the Wuhan headquarters for the control and treatment of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus.

Construction has started on the first dedicated hospital and is due to be finished by Feb 3.

The hospitals aim to copy the experience of Beijing in 2003, when the city battled severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).

As many as 774 people died in the Sars epidemic, which reached nearly 30 countries.

At the time, Beijing built the Xiaotangshan Hospital in its northern suburbs in just a week. Within two months, it treated one-seventh of all the country's Sars patients, the Changjiang Daily said.

"It created a miracle in the history of medical science," the paper added.