The NHS Nightingale hospital is set to begin accepting patients this week, despite being little more than an idea just 10 days ago.
The government's first emergency coronavirus hospital, located at the ExCeL conference centre in London, is reported to be the world's largest critical care facility and will initially host 500 beds equipped with ventilators and oxygen, and two morgues.
Capacity may later increase to 4,000 patients if demand calls for it, the NHS said.
On Wednesday, it was announced more than 29,000 people had tested positive for the virus in the UK, while more than 2,300 people have died since contracting it.
Greater London remains one of the hardest hit locations, with many boroughs reporting some of the highest concentrations of cases in the UK.
When NHS Nightingale opens its doors later this week, it will take in some of the worst-affected Covid-19 patients in Britain, all of whom will be transferred from there from hospitals around the UK.
It will not take on specialist cases of people who are also suffering from underlying health conditions.
England's NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said: “Under these exceptionally challenging circumstances the NHS is taking extraordinary steps to fight coronavirus.
"That’s why NHS clinicians and managers are working with military planners and engineers to create, equip, staff and open the NHS Nightingale London, and we’re very grateful for their support."
Similar hospitals are popping up around the globe as coronavirus cases continue to balloon out of control.
New York City recently opened pop-up treatment centres in Central Park, and welcomed a large Navy hospital ship to its shore.
Named the USNHS Comfort, the ship last assisted the state during the World Trade Center terror attacks in 2001.
Additional hospitals to combat the virus have also been built or refurbished in China, Vietnam, Guatemala and Colombia.
For more updates on coronavirus in the UK, visit our live blog.
