Coronavirus: Ulster Builds Its Own Field Hospital

[In_The_Wind]

Ulster County is on course to exhaust all available beds and ventilators by the end of the week, the county executive said. (Shutterstock)

KINGSTON, NY — Concerned that the rise in new coronavirus cases in Ulster County will soon overwhelm the local health care system, County Executive Pat Ryan began on Tuesday to set up a field hospital and an overflow center for the community as part of a coordinated effort to quadruple the current local hospital bed capacity.

Ryan said Monday that Ulster County had seen a near 50 percent surge in those being hospitalized from COVID-19 over the last several days. He cautioned that the county was on course to exhaust all available beds and ventilators by the end of the week. County officials said there were 402 confirmed cases of new coronavirus and 5 fatalities in Ulster as of April 7.

"As I have said from day one, we will not rest until we have the facilities and the equipment needed to protect the health and safety of all of our residents," Ryan said in a statement. "We will continue to monitor the situation and adjust our plan based on the data we are seeing on the ground to ensure we stay ahead of the curve. I hope and pray that we don't need to use these additional beds, but we must be prepared for the worst case."

The first part of the initiative is the Project Resilience Community Care Center, a new facility at the Kate Walton Fieldhouse on the Kingston High School campus, which will be ready to open as soon as next week. It will provide an additional 100 beds to serve patients transitioning into or out of local hospitals that could become overwhelmed by a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Second is a portion of the former Bank of America building at TechCity, to allow for the build-out of potentially hundreds of additional beds. The location is expected to be available around the time local hospital capacity is at its height. The plan is to use it for residents still recovering and transitioning out of hospitals but unable to as yet return home.

Ulster County's Department of Public Works, with assistance from Central Hudson and the Town of Ulster, will isolate and build out the 100,000 square foot space at TechCity. It is scheduled to be up and running in May.

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