Vladimir Putin wore a full hazmat suit today while visiting Russia's main coronavirus clinic as the country accelerates its preparations for the pandemic.
The Russian president toured Komunarka hospital in Moscow, seeing Covid-19 patients being treated.
The Kremlin is speed-building a new coronavirus hospital but Putin checked the existing facilities currently handling the bulk of Russia's officially-declared 495 cases, fewer than Luxembourg.
He passed on his 'warmest words of gratitude' to medics.
'I watched them working. They are all in combat posts,' he said. 'I do not want to use these military expressions, but really everything works like clockwork.'
He claimed Russia had 'a good, well-coordinated machine' to tackle coronavirus.
'People know what to do, how to do it, they have everything, they effectively use the available equipment and facilities.
'You can just see from the side how this is all set up.
'And for grave patients, care is visible, three specialists are working around the bed.'
Chief doctor Denis Protsenko said medics were ready to cope with either a Chinese-style scenario or one more like Italy.
'Our hospital is really ready to transform if there are a large number of patients,' he told Putin. 'I have studied in Europe, and [this hospital] is much better...
'It is just like (being in) space.'
Meanwhile extraordinary pictures show how Moscow's new coronavirus hospital is '40 per cent built' in just 12 days.
A mammoth £92 million construction operation is seeing the rise of a 500-bed infectious diseases clinic from an open field.
The 861,113 square feet complex is expected to take its first patients next month.
Some 5,000 workers are being encouraged with music and 'motivational posters' to complete the hospital as Russia's coronavirus infections rise more sharply - even though they are well behind other large countries.
'They started construction on 12 March,' said Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin.
Describing the project as 'gigantic' - and eventually creating 656 beds - he has promised Vladimir Putin it will be completed 'in the coming weeks'.
One Soviet-style poster shows the powerful mayor pointing his finger and saying: 'Construction workers! We are counting minutes.'
Another reads: 'Tired and given up? Make way for real fighters!'
Another shows a doctor with patients, reading: 'Construction worker! We need this (coronavirus) centre.'
'We have very tight deadlines, and anything that allows us to speed up work is very important for us,' said deputy mayor Andrei Bochkarev.
'On my order, a series of posters was developed, and we will play music at the site.'
The hospital is being erected 40 miles southwest of the Kremlin, and will open with 223 intensive care beds and 277 regular hospital beds.
'I am asking you to understand my decision,' said the mayor.
'I guarantee that it will not pose any threat to the local population.'
This article has been adapted from its original source.
