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What does "Fangcang" literally mean in "Fangcang hospital" where China relocated those infected with Covid-19, but who had only mild (or no) symptoms?
Somewhat "close but no cigar", a Lancet paper explains
The term Fangcang, which sounds similar to Noah's Ark in Chinese, was borrowed from military field hospitals [...]
But it's still not clear to me what the word actually means.
Edit:
After reading fefe's comment, I did more search and found this 方舱医院是什么
方舱医院是以医疗方舱为载体，医疗与医技保障功能综合集成的可快速部署的成套野外移动医疗平台
So "方舱" is obviously referring to those rectangular mobile units.
方舱医院 should be translated as "mobile cabins hospital"
As for the relationship between 方 and 方舟, may just be a coincidence
It is easy for people who never heard of 方舱 to link 方 with 方舟, due to the current crisis. If 方舱医院 didn't exist before this pandemic, my previous theory would be a fitting one
Previous theory:
"Noah's Ark" in Chinese is 「諾亞方舟」 or 「方舟」 (literally mean 'square ship') 「方艙」(Fangcang) is made up of 「方舟」and 「艙」(cabin) "Fangcang hospital" literally mean "Cabins of Noah's Ark hospital" We all know what the term 'Noah's Ark' implies
Literally, "Fang" means "square". "Cang" means "cabin". So it just means square cabin hospital. The Chinese Army call it this name just for imaginary and brevity.
方舱医院 = field hospital. The London Edexcel Hospital (the temporary one made in the previous exhibition centre/olympics venue) is called, in Mandarin news reports, a 方舱医院。 so in current usage, i'd say "field hospital" is the best translation; (it's not made of square modular cabins, and it's not military, so i would drop the "military" out of our usual phrase of a military field hospital.)
