Chinese cities call for bids to dismantle and recycle makeshift Covid hospitals

Several Chinese cities have opened the bidding for firms to tear down makeshift hospitals built quickly during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to domestic media outlet Caixin.

Local authorities have been working to remove the facilities, with materials and equipment up for auction since last year, Caixin reported, citing public resource trading platforms.

The makeshift hospitals, or fangcang, to be dismantled are mostly those assembled from prefabricated containers and placed in the suburbs. Local authorities, supported mainly by government funds, aim to recycle the materials and equipment from the facilities.

Under China’s zero-Covid policy – which involved mass-testing, strict quarantine and lockdowns – a large number of temporary hospitals were set up to achieve the goal of accommodating all Covid-19 patients, regardless of how severe their symptoms were. In late 2022, mandatory quarantine requirements were lifted and makeshift hospitals across the country were left empty.

Domestic media reports have noted that dealing with these temporary buildings has been a “difficult problem to solve” for local governments. Over the past two years, hundreds of makeshift hospitals have been transformed, with some becoming official medical facilities and others dismantled.

According to the Caixin report, the bidding documents show that some cities require contractors to carry out protective dismantling of reusable materials and equipment before transferring some of the materials to government departments that will coordinate their recycling by state-owned enterprises.

Other cities say the materials belong to the winning bidder that dismantles the buildings and restores the site.

In a case in Dongguan in southern Guangdong province, a local recycling company this month won the bid to dispose of a facility’s electrical cables for about 5.9 million yuan (US$815,000).