Reno (United States) (AFP)

To cope with the influx of patients with Covid-19, Renown Health Hospital in Reno, Nevada (west), has transformed two floors of a nearby covered parking lot into a care unit specifically intended for patients with moderate symptoms of the disease.

The goal?

Offer these patients and the caregivers who take care of them a secure environment and direct access to the hospital's infrastructures (laboratory, pharmacy, catering, etc.) while freeing up beds in the intensive care unit for the most vulnerable cases. more serious.

The "alternative care site" was fitted out in just ten days last April by specialist companies, which equipped the two floors of the car park with flooring, electricity, water and ventilation networks meeting standards. sanitary facilities.

The site, with a total capacity of more than 1,400 beds separated from each other by rows of immaculate screens, was activated on November 12 by hospital management to anticipate the new outbreak of the pandemic affecting the western United States.

On the opening day, a hospital doctor posted a selfie on Twitter in which we could see behind him beds still folded up and in plastic envelopes.

An image taken up by another account which wrongly claimed that it was a "bogus hospital" having "never seen a single patient", suggesting that the pandemic was only a "scam".

Outgoing President Donald Trump had retweeted this critical message to his some 88 million subscribers, along with the comment "in Nevada, the election results are bogus too", as usual arousing heated debate.

As of Wednesday, the alternative Renown Health Medical Center had welcomed 350 patients since its inception, and 24 patients were being treated there, according to hospital management.

According to Nevada authorities, nearly 200,000 cases of the coronavirus have been identified in the state since the start of the pandemic, killing 2,673 in total.

With about 87 new cases per 100,000 residents in the past seven days, Nevada has one of the highest rates of infection in the United States (6th out of 50).

© 2020 AFP