Every provincial-level region should have at least two to three makeshift hospitals for quarantining mild cases of COVID-19, a senior health official said on Tuesday.

Jiao Yahui, director of the National Health Commission's Bureau of Medical Administration, said that the latest COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment protocols stipulated that mild cases should be admitted to centralized quarantine sites, not specialized hospitals.

The makeshift sites could be hotels, but the rapid increase in COVID-19 patients means the equally rapid growth of close contacts, who need to be quarantined separately to those testing positive.

As a result, many areas have started to build makeshift hospitals for the purpose, using valuable experience gained from dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan in 2020, Jiao said.

The State Council's joint prevention and control mechanism has issued a guideline for the management of makeshift hospitals that requires each provincial region to be prepared to have at least two to three, which can be built and put into use in under two days, she said.

The country now has 33 makeshift hospitals, either already in use or under construction, in 19 cities in 12 provincial regions, with a total of 35,000 hospital beds.

They can quickly admit asymptomatic and mild cases and alleviate the pressure on medical resources, Jiao added.