- Medics recall life-and-death moments at the hospital;

- Constructors say building the hospital was the most urgent task ever undertaken.

by Xinhua writers Yao Yuan, Zhong Qun and Wang Zuokui

WUHAN, April 15 -- A makeshift hospital ceased operation in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, on Wednesday as the coronavirus epidemic wanes.

Wuhan Leishenshan (Thunder God Mountain) Hospital was built in 10 days to treat COVID-19 patients. Construction began in late January. Its last batch of patients was transferred to normal hospitals on Tuesday.

At the closing ceremony, doctors and nurses waved flags and wrote their names on the clothes of their colleagues for memory.

"We hope that the hospital will never restart operations," a local district official told an applauding crowd.

After the closing ceremony, medical workers were seen disinfecting and sealing the remaining wards.

Ambulances, transferring the last batch of COVID-19 patients to other hospitals, leave Leishenshan (Thunder God Mountain) Hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, April 14, 2020. (Xinhua/Cheng Min)

Wang Xinghuan, head of the hospital, said they worked hard to achieve a low mortality rate of 2.3 percent among its patients, 45 percent of whom were in severe or critical conditions.

The 1,600-bed hospital is managed by the Wuhan-based Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University with over 3,000 medics from nine provincial regions in China. A total of 2,011 patients have been treated there.

"After Leishenshan was built, I can see the efforts to increase beds and the support coming from across the nation," said Fang Yanhong, a nurse with the Zhongnan Hospital, adding that the completion of Leishenshan has shored up confidence of local medics in winning the battle.