Backgrounds. The COVID-19 pandemic has put into trouble the global healthcare system. A sharp increase of infections and critically ill patients has tested the resilience of healthcare infrastructures, forcing them to quickly adapt in order to face this extremely dangerous emergency. Healthcare facilities were soon called to properly respond to a sudden demand for emergency care and Intensive Care Units beds in an exceptionally short time and, as a result, that different emergency strategies were speedily implemented. With the aim of overcoming the lack of spaces in existing facilities, three main strategies have been adopted. Following the example of Wuhan, China, where an emergency hospital was built in a couple of weeks, a part of the world took the challenge of building temporary facilities from scratch, while the other part relied on existing buildings.