Army Corps of Engineers eyes 114 sites to convert to hospitals in coronavirus fight

[left-of-center2012]

Source: The Hill

The Army Corps of Engineers is eyeing at least 114 facilities to potentially serve as hospitals to treat patients during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Army Corps has assessed 81 of the locations — including hotels, sports arenas, convention centers, college dormitories and fairgrounds — that could either accept patients who have contracted COVID-19 or treat non-infected individuals in order to free up overwhelmed hospitals, Gen. Todd Semonite told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday.

Semonite said many of the facilities being eyed by the Army Corps are in Washington, California and New York. The corps is already in the process of converting New York City’s Javits Center into a 2,900-room hospital. Several more sites are expected to be in use next week in cities like Sacramento, Calif., Seattle and Chicago, where the McCormick Place Convention Center has been targeted as such a facility, Semonite said.

Once a facility is confirmed, the city would then lease it and the corps would hire contractors to complete construction to convert the site within weeks. “We’ve already cut contracts and we’re cutting contracts every night to be able to get contractors to be able to come into the facilities,” Semonite said.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/defense/489941-army-corps-of-engineers-eyes-114-sites-to-convert-to-hospitals-in-coronavirus

[jmowreader]

1. It should be 121 sites

Add these seven:

https://www.trumphotels.com

[Terry_M]

5. plz no

they are being leased, not taken over. That means money goes to the owner presumably.

[elias7]

6. And the bed bug eradication...

[Delmette2.0]

10. The Dipshit Tower in NYC does not have a sprinkler system.

I remember several years ago an apartment fire started and the basic fire protection was mentioned.

[dweller]

2. get to it

now

✌🏼

[gibraltar72]

3. Didn't he say last night Seattle Seahawk stadium?

[jmowreader]

7. I hope not

CenturyLink Field doesn’t have a roof. If they want to convert a Seattle stadium to a coronavirus hospital, the retractable-roof baseball stadium right next door to the Clink will be much better.

[gibraltar72]

9. He said around the outside enclosed areas.

[marble falls]

4. At least one of them better have Trump's name on it

[rockfordfile]

11. Why

[marble falls]

12. Turning these into hospitals is not a gentle business. So that Trump gets to share in having ...

assets commandeered.

[bucolic_frolic]

8. Hope it makes a big difference

I don't know the logistics, obviously, but it would seem to me quicker to use a cookie-cutter approach to existing rooms like dorms and hotels, but hey do what you have to do. Still more is needed not to mention the critical component - ventilators.

We are witnessing the real time consequences of Just-In-Time, originally applied to manufacturing about 25-30 years ago, to health care. And by a parallel comparison, it's applicable to the debt laden companies that will declare bankruptcy. In previous economic crises, prudent businesses were not overleveraged, they timed expenditures to the business cycle. Financial engineering discovered that there was an optimal debt-equity ratio that maximized the value of the company, usually at least 70% debt. So no one has much of a reserve there either.

[NBachers]

13. If this ever ends, maybe some of those facilities can be used to house & provide for homeless people