Local News

Polis: Stay-At-Home Order Giving Workers Time To Get Convention Center Ready

April 10, 2020 / 3:03 PM MDT / CBS Colorado

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DENVER (CBS4) - Work is underway at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver as the state remains under a stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus pandemic. The center will be used as an alternative care site, which will treat COVID-19 patients who can leave the ICU, but are not ready to go home.

A nurse's station under construction at the Colorado Convention Center. (credit: CBS)

Gov. Jared Polis said at a news conference on Friday at the convention center that the statewide order is buying officials time to build the care site.

"We need to prepare for a realistic bad case scenario model in terms of making sure that there are enough beds for those who need that critical access care and that's what this work is. If Coloradans are doing a good job staying at home, if you're wearing masks when you do need to go out, then this facility will be less used rather than more used," Polis said.

Crews with the Omaha District of the Army Corps of Engineers are assisting in construction of the medical shelter.

Major Christopher Mazurek with the corps said the project was awarded and given the green light on Sunday, the design phase began Monday, and construction started Wednesday. In just 48 hours of construction work, 2,000 patient rooms are taking shape.

A patient room under construction at the Colorado Convention Center. (credit: CBS)

Each patient room in the facility will be equipped with medical mask-grade oxygen lines, power outlets, a cot, bedside table, and lamp. The rooms will not have doors, but curtains, as nurses will need to be able to monitor patients at all times. All of the rooms will not have their own ceiling, instead, they'll have the ceiling of the convention center itself, for fire safety reasons.

The governor says he doesn't expect the facility to ever be completely full, but he doesn't expect it to be completely empty either, as he says COVID-19 will be with us for a long time, until a cure or vaccine is found.

The Colorado Convention Center will be able to house 2,000 patients. Crews said the facility will be able to begin admitting patients as early as April 18.