Dozens of field hospitals are being set up with federal assistance across the country to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
Most field hospitals being constructed are not needed right away, but experts expect COVID-19 hospitalizations to grow well into April. Many state governments are requesting assistance from the federal government now to set up temporary facilities if the number of coronavirus cases pass hospitals’ capacity to treat patients.
“Army Corps of Engineers are in every single state. They are working with the state and local officials. They’ve done 181 assessments of preexisting facilities like this, so we can rapidly stand up hospitals, and we’re working with FEMA, and FEMA’s the one who’s providing all this type of equipment,” Gen. James McConville, the Army chief of staff, told CBS News on Monday.
Below is a look at preparations being made all over the United States:
California
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced on Sunday the Los Angeles Convention Center would be filled with hundreds of hospital beds to care for COVID-19 patients after hospitals in the area fill up. Garcetti did not say when the field hospital is expected to be completed or how many beds it would hold. The Corps is also canvassing the city of Redding to locate another site for a field hospital.
President Trump has dispatched the USNS Mercy, a 1,000-bed hospital ship, to the port of Los Angeles.
Florida
Florida is setting up several field hospitals across the state in preparation for COVID-19 patients. Crews at Miami-Dade’s fairgrounds are turning the venue’s massive tent into a 250-bed field hospital. Another emergency facility will also be constructed in Jacksonville.
Illinois
The Corps is constructing a 3,000-bed field hospital at McCormick Place, the largest event center in North America. The venue is located just outside of Chicago.
Louisiana
Trump has agreed to have Louisiana receive a 250-bed field hospital from the Corps. New Orleans officials have already ordered that the city’s Morial Convention Center be outfitted with medical supplies. The center is large enough to house 3,000 beds, if necessary.
Maryland
Maryland is constructing a 250-bed field hospital in the Baltimore Convention Center that will be used for recovering COVID-19 patients, if necessary. Ventilators for the facility will be in limited supply, and the worst cases of the illness will be treated in hospitals.
Michigan
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is setting up a 900-bed field hospital in Detroit’s TCF Center. Government officials are scouting out other locations across the state that could serve as additional emergency facilities.
New Jersey
New Jersey is opening four field hospitals across the state: one facility in the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, one facility in the Atlantic City Convention Center, and two facilities in the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center in Edison. The field hospitals will contain a total of 1,000 beds.
New York
New York is considered the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. and has more than 66,000 confirmed cases, the most in the nation. Trump dispatched the USNS Comfort, with its 1,000 hospital beds, to dock in New York Harbor. It arrived on Monday. The Corps has constructed a 68-bed field hospital in Central Park.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said he wants to construct additional 1,000-bed field hospitals in each of New York City’s five boroughs and in surrounding counties. The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal has been approved as such a site and is estimated to be able to hold 1,000 beds or more.
Oregon
Oregon has constructed one 250-bed field hospital at the Oregon State Fair and Exposition Center in Salem. The facility is being held in reserve if coronavirus hospitalizations grow passed hospital capacity.
Pennsylvania
Temple University’s Liacouras Center has been outfitted as a 250-bed field hospital. Officials are also looking at constructing other short-term COVID-19 treatment facilities in several places inside Pennsylvania’s Delaware Valley area.
Texas
The Corps has built a 250-bed field hospital inside Dallas’s Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. The center can hold up to 1,400 beds if needed.
Washington state
The Corps is building a facility with beds at Seattle’s CenturyLink Field Event Center. A field hospital has already been built in Shoreline County north of Seattle, and several other counties are being canvassed as potential field hospital sites.
