WORCESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - Massachusetts is bracing for an expected surge in cases of the coronavirus that could come in a little more than a week.
Now, help is coming for hospitals in both Boston and Worcester after Governor Charlie Baker announced that the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in the Seaport will be used as a field hospital at a press conference on Tuesday.
Trucks of supplies are arriving in Worcester and beds are being set up inside the DCU Center to help treat the rising number of patients.
“The bottom line is you have a lot of latitude to create a model that is being used in a lot of other places and used successfully,” Baker explained while visting the convention center that is now being transformed into a 250-bed hospital.
National Guard, FEMA and others are working around the clock to get the 50,000 square foot facility up and running.
“It is a challenge but these hospitals are set up to be quickly designed and to handle any kind of emergency,” Dr. Eric Dickson of UMass Memorial Healthcare said. “We need about 2,000 beds across Mass. to meet the surge we expect in a couple of weeks.”
The DCU Center will become the state’s first field hospital.
The second will be built in the Seaport inside Boston’s convention center and in Fitchburg, the Landry Arena is being converted into a temporary morgue.
Gov. Baker said they are looking at other sites in the state that might be able to help with hospital overflow.
“There are going to be ultimately strategies for Cape for the South Coast, for Western Mass. for Merrimack Valley, and for Boston. Each strategy will be based on the that exist in each of those places,” he said.
While these places will be equipped to treat people sicked by the virus, those who are critically ill will still receive care in a regular hospital.
For now, the biggest challenge facing this endeavor is staffing.
Doctors are calling on medical, nursing and pharmacy students to help staff these hospitals.
“We just simply do not have enough staff at the medical center to add beds,” said. “This is a time when we need you and this not something to be sitting on sidelines. This is your way to help,” Dickson said.
Officials in Worcester say the hospital is expected to open next week.
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