Coronavirus Crisis: Massachusetts To Begin Reporting Hospital Capacity Daily
BOSTON (CBS) – Massachusetts will begin posting a daily update showing residents the current hospital capacity during the coronavirus pandemic.
Gov. Charlie Baker made the announcement on Tuesday during a visit to a 94-bed field hospital set up by Cape Cod Health Care and the National Guard at Joint Base Cape Cod on Buzzards Bay. Baker said the facility should be able to start taking patients by Monday.
The hospital bed dashboard will be posted Tuesday around 4 p.m. and "will include an estimated inventory of how many hospital beds are available and where, including ICU, acute, and field hospital beds."
WBZ-TV's Mike LaCrosse Reports
Baker said that as of Sunday night there are about 15,900 beds statewide. About 5,000 are available for non-ICU care, roughly 2,000 for ICU care and 1,000 are open in field hospitals.
"In short, we have about half of our beds available statewide right now for different levels of care," said Baker.
The state is bracing for a surge of coronavirus cases that is expected sometime by April 20.