Emergency field hospital opens in Germany

An emergency field hospital for COVID-19 patients has officially opened in the German capital, but so far there are no patients.

The clinic opened Monday on the site of Berlin's convention center has a capacity of 500 beds that can be doubled if required.

But since Germany has managed to sharply lower the rate of infection since building began four weeks ago, the capital's 50 hospitals have proved more than sufficient for treating all coronavirus patients.

Berlin's top health official, Dilek Kalayci, said the clinic would serve as a reserve hospital, noting that the experience of Spain, Italy and New York had shown even well-equipped medical systems could become overloaded in a pandemic.