Construction kicked off on July 20 of a key national medical center at the East Lake High-tech Development Zone -- also known as Optics Valley of China and in Wuhan, the capital city of Central China's Hubei province -- zone officials said.

They said the new facility will aim to lift the country's capabilities to be able to handle new infectious diseases and improve the nation's epidemic control mechanism.

As the first national medical center being set up outside Beijing and Shanghai and the sixth national medical center, the facility will be set up at the basis of the Optics Valley campus for Tongji Hospital affiliated with the Tongji Medical College at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

Officials said it will be built as a leading and world-class national medical center. It will integrate prevention and control, early warnings, treatment, management, training and research and development to be able to handle major public health threats, according to local officials.

Officials added that, after completion, the center will devote itself to taking the lead in the construction of an emergency treatment system, an information system, a rapid laboratories diagnosis system, an investigation and control team and a network system, a rapid response system for emergency relief of medical devices, a public health emergency management system, a major decision support system and a major public health event research system for national major public health events.