Construction of a temporary hospital in Glasgow to help cope with the Covid-19 outbreak is now under way.

More than 400 contractors are working alongside nearly 150 clinicians and operational staff to establish the new NHS Louisa Jordan.

It is being built at the Scottish Events Campus (SEC) in Glasgow to help deal with the Covid-19 outbreak.

Scottish health secretary Jeane Freeman said: “I want to send my sincere thanks to the many clinical, operational and construction staff who have been on-site at the SEC to construct this new NHS Scotland hospital.

“They are working together, under exceptional circumstances, to deliver a clinically safe and fit for purpose hospital that if required, will provide extra capacity for NHS Scotland.”

The hospital will provide an initial 300 beds to help deal with the outbreak, with the scope to increase the number of patients to 1,000 if necessary.

It is believed the facility, announced earlier this week, will be ready to open in the next two weeks.

On Wednesday, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said it will be named after Louisa Jordan, a First World War nurse from Glasgow who lost her life in Serbia.

The main contractors involved in the construction of NHS Louisa Jordan are Balfour Beatty Group, Kier Group, Robertson Group and Graham Construction.