NAPLES, ITALY (AFP) - It's a race against time at the Cardarelli hospital in Naples, where a new intensive care unit is being assembled as southern Italy's underfunded and overstretched healthcare system braces for an epidemic.

The rooms in "Building M" have been stripped out, with just the last few gurneys to be removed before new life-saving equipment, medicines and supplies can be installed in the freshly named "Coronavirus Wing".