As coronavirus spreads, Maryland officials begin turning Baltimore Convention Center into makeshift hospital
Flanked
by Humvees and doctors, state officials and the Maryland National Guard
unveiled more details Tuesday about their plans to build a makeshift
field hospital at the Baltimore Convention Center. Baltimore News
Maryland
Gov. Larry Hogan and Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young toured the
1-million-square-foot facility to inspect the plans as officials rush to add 6,000 more beds statewide ahead of an anticipated surge of patients suffering from the coronavirus pandemic.
“Look
at New York. Look at Italy. Look at Washington State and California,"
Hogan, a Republican, said. “We don’t want to be like that. ... But we’re
not that far behind some of those places. We just had our fourth death today. This is a serious thing." Baltimore Political News
Maryland now has about 350 confirmed cases of the rapidly spreading virus, and health experts believe there are far more people infected.
The
federal government has pledged to deliver 250 beds for the downtown
Baltimore facility, which will be jointly run by the University of
Maryland Medical System and Johns Hopkins Hospital with help from medics from the National Guard. Hogan said the field hospital could be expanded to hold as many as 750 patients as the virus spreads.
About
100,000-square-feet of the convention center would be used for the
hospital. That could be expanded to 300,000 square feet, officials said. Baltimore Medical News
“There
are places around the country where they’re looking at tents for field
hospitals,” the governor said. “This is certainly a much better
scenario.”
Young said he was calling on the federal government to provide more help to cities.
“We’re
all in this together,” the mayor said. “I think we need to call on the
president to bail out cities. It’s going to be a financial disaster for
all of us.”
In stepped-up efforts to fight the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Hogan announced Monday the state was ordering all nonessential companies to close while dedicating millions of dollars to help save small businesses. Baltimore Distribution Service
For More Info
No comments