A contractor working at the site of the UK’s new coronavirus hospital says the scale of the building should make people take the pandemic ‘seriously’.

Alex Woodside is working to install cables at the ExCel Centre in London which will become NHS Nightingale.

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In a sobering video posted on social media, Mr Woodside said: “If you are not taking this seriously, like I wasn't, I think we really need to start.”

Alex Woodside's video gives an insight to the scale of the ExCel Centre which will become NHS Nightingale. | Other 3rd Party

Scale of the hospital

The main conference hall where the hospital is being constructed is more than 1km long will contain 2,000 beds and two morgues.

Yesterday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the 100,000 square metre dockland site would be converted into two wards, each equipped to care for 2,000 patients.

The makeshift hospital has been named ‘NHS Nightingale’, after the statistician and pioneer of modern medicine, Florence Nightingale.

Makeshift facility

The Covid-19 infection rate in London is thought to be around two weeks ahead of the disease in the rest of the UK. NHS Nightingale will help the capital’s hospitals deal with the mounting pressure for resources, like bed spaces.

“With the help of the military and with NHS clinicians, we will make sure that we have the capacity that we need,” said Hancock.

Some 700 military personnel are expected to take on auxiliary roles at the makeshift facility, when it opens for an initial 500 patients next week.

Chilling video shows scale of makeshift hospital being built to battle Covid-19