Washington (AFP)
Thousands of hospital beds are being set up in emergency centers from Los Angeles to Miami in convention centers, sports halls and parking lots to deal with the impending coronavirus wave. But another problem is already looming: the lack of nursing staff to manage them.
For now, these beds are often empty, because the peak of the epidemic is for many regions, outside New York, still several weeks away. Their alignments in huge rooms evoke preparations for wars, and give an idea of the health catastrophe to come.
In New York, the convention center where Hillary Clinton held her unfortunate election night in 2016 will welcome patients from the Covid-19. A military hospital ship, the Comfort, has 1,000 beds, but only 20 were occupied on Friday because the army only wants sick non-carriers.
Since Tuesday, in Detroit, a hundred workers and engineers have erected partitions in the convention center TCF Center, where Bernie Sanders was still meeting in early March. They are installing oxygen tubes, cables for electricity and computers, and they have modified the air conditioning system to prevent air from escaping.
"I work 15 hours a day, it is the most important project of my life", says with AFP Nick Zager, engineer of the Corps of the engineer of the army, normally charged with rescuing the cities devastated by hurricanes or flooded.
Here will be installed, probably by the weekend, 1,000 rooms of three meters by three, separated by partitions, on two levels, and dedicated to future patients of the virus: 600 beds on the upper level, with oxygen for each bed , and 400 oxygen-free beds underneath for recovering patients. Plus 66 sinks, 49 showers and 23 toilets.
It is the federal government which finances, after a request formulated by the State of Michigan only Sunday. It is the responsibility of the local authorities to provide nursing staff and medical equipment.
And the military has pre-planned twenty other sites in advance in Detroit, Grand Rapids and elsewhere in Michigan, just in case.
"We hope for the best and we prepare for the worst," said Nick Zager, a favorite quote from his corps.
- Calm before the storm -
The military is building eight field hospitals in New York, Chicago and two other cities in Illinois, with sites in Texas and Louisiana soon to be added.
In California, the State National Guard installs a temporary hospital in the desert landscape of Indio, with 125 camp beds. A caravan camp receives patients in isolation in Los Angeles.
The hospitals themselves expand without the assistance of the public authorities.
In Virginia, south of Washington, it's calm before the storm.
The peak of the epidemic is not expected until May, according to a widely used epidemiological model posted online by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at Washington State University.
The Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg has just set up an emergency room in its parking lot to double its capacity. When AFP went there on Thursday, there was still no one there.
"I hope we never have to use it, but unfortunately, the models all say that it will not," said Christopher Newman, the medical director.
The hospital has doubled the number of intensive care beds from 38 to 76. He has 71 artificial respirators on hand.
What if the wave tripled or quadrupled requirements? Patients will have to be transferred to other hospitals, says Dr. Newman.
"My biggest concern is the staff," he warns. Here he made arrangements with the other specialist and town doctors. But "if all the hospitals are already at double their capacity, it will be difficult to have enough people for the field hospitals".
New York illustrates what the rest of the country could face in April and May.
"I asked the president and the army more than a week ago for 1,000 nurses, 150 doctors and 300 respiratory therapists," complained Mayor Bill de Blasio. "I still have nothing".
© 2020 AFP