Colorado Convention Center to be used to house recovering COVID-19 patients
DENVER (KRDO) -- The Colorado Convention Center in Denver is known for hosting thousands of people at a time. Starting in a few weeks, it will be open to host a different crowd -- those recovering from COVID-19.
With an expected surge of coronavirus patients, the state is looking to convert spaces into medical overflow facilities that will be able to temporarily house patients. On Friday, Governor Jared Polis spoke outside the convention center telling media how it will be used.
"These are used to step down folks from critical care [who] aren't ready to go home," Polis said, adding that the center will have 2,000 hospital beds for those patients.
"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," Polis said.
Those recovering at the convention center will be cared for with nurses on stand-by and they will have oxygen ready to go if needed.
Polis said, "Folks are still contagious; they need to be watched because at any moment the virus can take a turn for the worst and they may need to be moved to a hospital. But in the meantime, they can get better here."
The reason for facilities like this is so when Colorado reaches the peak of its COVID-19 crisis, hospitals won't be overcrowded with patients. "Looking at the numbers it is certainly possible that there will need to be hundreds of patients here or dozens of patients here that are transferred from the hospitals to free up those beds when they are needed," Polis said.
That peak is now expected to hit sometime in May. As for how long this will be, going as far as social distancing and stay at home precautions, Governor Polis said it will be a part of our community until there is a vaccine.
As for potential temporary hospitals here in El Paso County, the Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency Management is currently looking at several specific locations. They are still in talks with those facilities so for now they cannot say which venues may be involved.
