Photo taken on Jan 24, 2020 shows the construction site of a makeshift hospital in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province. [Photo/Xinhua]

Wuhan, the epicenter of the new coronavirus pneumonia outbreak, plans to build another 1,300-bed hospital to receive patients to ease the shortage of beds in the city, the local government said on Saturday afternoon.

The new hospital, named Leishenshan Hospital, will be the second hospital in the city to receive patients infected with the new virus. The construction is expected to be completed in 15 days.

Local government announced earlier this week that it would build a 1,000-bed mobile hospital, with a floor area of 25,000 square meters, for designated patients before Feb 3.

In the treatment and control of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, that spread rapidly on the Chinese mainland in 2003, Beijing built the Xiaotangshan Hospital, a temporary medical center in the northern suburb of the city.

This move means that Wuhan will build two hospitals similar to the scale of the Xiaotangshan Hospital within one month.