Timelapse video shows incredible transformation of London’s ExCel centre

A timelapse video shows how London’s ExCel centre transformed into the new NHS Nightingale Hospital in just nine days.

The footage shows how quickly the 100-acre site temporary facility was converted into individual examination rooms for up to 4,000 patients.

The coronavirus death toll in the UK hit 3,605 and more than 38,000 cases have been confirmed.

The new hospital is part of a nationwide push to increase capacity on a huge scale. 

Outside London, work is under way at scores of locations from stadiums to hotel complexes to provide potentially more than 10,000 extra beds.

Some regions have concentrated on large-scale facilities – most notably in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow – but other strategies include developing a network of smaller field hospitals, like what is being done in Wales

Prince Charles, 71, officially opened the hospital yesterday.

The Prince of Wales told how he was ‘enormously touched’ to have been asked to launch the facility via video-link from his Scottish home at Birkhall.

It comes four days after Charles completed self-isolation following his own diagnosis, although he only suffered ‘mild’ symptoms. 

The opening was attended in person by Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Health Minister Nadine Dorries, who have also both had the virus but now recovered.

Charles told those gathered at the Hospital’s entrance: ‘I was enormously touched to have been asked to open the Nightingale Hospital as part of a mass mobilisation to withstand the coronavirus crisis.

‘It is without doubt a spectacular and almost unbelievable feat of work in every sense, from its speed of construction in just nine days to its size and the skills of those who have a created it.’