The Ministry of Health has issued a three day call for tenders for the purchase, delivery and installation of a prefabricated hospital, to be up and running within eight weeks of the contract being awarded.

The prefabricated, fully-fledged hospital must have the capacity to treat 90 patients and staff, and include a pharmacy, 6 intensive care units, an emergency unit, a mortuary and a minimum of 70 ventilators amongst other requirements. 

Although the coronavirus is not explicitly mentioned in the call for tenders, it is likely that it will play some role in the treatment of COVID-19 patients should there be the need after the pandemic reached Malta.

Such ‘ready-made’ hospitals were successfully used to combat the virus at the epidemic of the outbreak in Wuhan China, which erected hospitals that could treat 1000 patients in a little over a week.

Last week, parts of the University of Malta, located adjacent to Mater Dei hospital, was transformed into a temporary hospital ward to cater for a possible spike in patients requiring coronavirus-related treatment. The government has said there is a current potential bed capacity of 680 to treat an outbreak.

The are currently 110 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Malta, three of which were announced today.

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