Giving back. Prince Charles helped to open up a new coronavirus field hospital after his own brush with the infection.
Charles, 71, assisted in launching NHS Nightingale Hospital London via video call from his home in Scotland on Friday, April 3. According to Clarence House’s official Instagram, the medical facility is now open and ready to provide aid to patients suffering from COVID-19.
“It’s a spectacular and almost unbelievable feat of work,” the prince said in Friday’s video announcement, marking the first-ever virtual launch done by a member of the British royal family. “An example, if ever one was needed, of how the impossible can be made possible.”
The east London hospital has provided 500 beds that are fully supplied with ventilators and oxygen, and there’s a possibility for the number of beds to increase to 4,000 to 5,000 in time. There are also plans for field hospitals of the same caliber to open across other cities in the U.K.
As of Friday, more than 38,000 residents in the U.K. have received a positive coronavirus diagnosis, including the Prince of Wales.
On March 25, Clarence House confirmed Charles’ COVID-19 diagnosis in a statement. At the time, it was noted that the prince was “displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home through the last few days as usual.”
Charles revealed on Wednesday, April 1, that he had recovered from the virus. In a video message, he showed his support for others who have been affected. “Having recently gone through the process of contracting this coronavirus — luckily with relatively mild symptoms — I now find myself on the other side of the illness but still in no less a state of social distance and general isolation,” he said at the time.
“As we are all learning, this is a strange, frustrating and often distressing experience, when the presence of family and friends is no longer possible and the normal structures of life are suddenly removed,” the royal continued. “At such an unprecedented and anxious time in all our lives, my wife and I are thinking particularly of all those who have lost their loved ones in such very difficult and abnormal circumstances, and of those having to endure sickness, isolation and loneliness.”
The number of worldwide coronavirus cases has topped 1 million, while more than 54,000 have died from the illness.
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