UPDATE (March 18, 4:54 p.m. PT) - Gov. Kate Brown is deploying the Oregon National Guard to set up 250 emergency hospital beds at the state fairground in Salem, in the latest measure to prepare for an increase in the number of people stricken with COVID-19.
Brown is holding daily calls with reporters and announced the latest measure on Wednesday.
Related: Coronavirus Patient Surge In Oregon Prompts Joint Hospital Efforts, Delayed Medical Treatments
The hospital will be set up in the Jackman Long Building, an existing building on the fairgrounds property. Members of the Oregon National Guard will be filling it with basic medical equipment, beds, chairs and tables in the next couple of days.
Brown said she hoped it would be operational by Friday.
Chris Ingersoll, with the joint information center, said details such as who will staff and operate the facility are being worked out.
"We are really short on details right now," Ingersoll said. "We will put out an advisory though. With the overall feeling of alarm in the state anytime we have unified personnel driving military equipment one place to the other we have to put out rumors about closing the borders and enforced quarantines. We are trying to help people not feel alarmed if they see military personnel in the building."
Brown’s announcement is the latest in several efforts to create more hospital capacity to prepare for a surge in coronavirus cases.
Earlier this week, the Portland metro area’s hospitals announced they would work together to create more beds and delay elective medical treatments to free up space.
Oregon has 6,601 staffed hospital beds. The state anticipates it may need an additional 1,000 staffed hospital beds, including 400 more intensive care unit beds, to accommodate the expected surge of COVID-19 patients.
Oregon has the smallest number of hospital beds per-person in the country: just 1.6 beds for every 1,000 residents.
According to spokesperson Gary Walker, Providence hospitals across Oregon have been setting up screening tents outside the hospitals and running readiness drills. Patients in the tents will be screened over a live video to help limit exposure to health care workers and patients who don’t have COVID-19.
New trailers are being set up at PeaceHealth SacredHeart RiverBend Medical Center in Eugene to treat COVID-19 patients.
Kaiser Permanente says it will be closing small clinics and medical offices across the region on Thursday. Doctors and staff at those locations will be consolidated and reassigned to help prepare for a COVID-19 surge. In a statement released Tuesday they said this will help them conserve personal protective equipment and limit exposure to people in the community. They also said no employees would be furloughed as a result of the closures.
