VA Picks Extra Hospital Sites For Late-April Coronavirus Surge

Mark Hand
Updated ·4 min read

VIRGINIA — Virginia officials are making plans to increase hospital bed capacity with the expectation that a surge in positive cases of the new coronavirus, or COVID-19, will begin in late April and last through late May, Gov. Ralph Northam said Wednesday at a press briefing.

With only weeks to spare before the projected surge in positive cases, Northam said his administration is looking at expanding hospital capacity and acquiring larger amounts of personal protective equipment for health-care workers. Right now, 145 of the people hospitalized in Virginia with the coronavirus are in intensive care units and 108 of them are on ventilator support, state health officials said.

The governor's office has been working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on identifying potential alternative sites for placing hospital beds. The Corps of Engineers evaluated 41 sites across Virginia, with most of them located in the more densely populated areas of the state, Northam said.

State officials, together with the Corps of Engineers, narrowed the list down to the former Exxon Mobil site on Gallows Road in Fairfax County across from Inova Fairfax Hospital; the Hampton Roads Convention Center, which is near the Sentara and Riverside Hospitals in southeast Virginia; and an as-yet-to-be-determined site in the Richmond area. Northam said he hopes to be able to announce the Richmond location on Friday.

Inova Health System already occupies part of the old Exxon Mobil campus. But a large amount of space is still available at the site. Inova bought the 117-acre former Exxon Mobil campus in 2015.

On Tuesday, the Fairfax County government announced that had it developed streamlined regulations for medical facility owners that want to build temporary medical structures next to existing medical facilities. Before hospitals and other medical facilities reach capacity, the county said it is hoping to increase medical service capacity for the community in response to the coronavirus.

Northam did not announce any new major restrictions at Wednesday's press briefing. On Monday, the governor issued an executive order that requires residents to stay home except to obtain food and other essential services, obtain medical care, travel to and from work, take care of other persons or care for animals, visit a relative, travel to and from an educational institution, volunteer with a group providing charitable or social services, or exercise outdoors with social distancing.

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The governor stressed that reducing the spread of the coronavirus is going to be a months-long process. "For now, we are at the beginning of this virus and that is why it is so important for Virginians to stay at home," he said. "Social distancing is a powerful weapon, so let’s use it."

On Wednesday morning, the Virginia Department of Health reported 1,484 positive cases of the coronavirus and 34 deaths. The positive cases jumped by 234 from the number reported Tuesday and the number of reported deaths increased by seven.

Fairfax County continues to report the most cases — 288. The next largest numbers are 119 in Arlington County, 116 in Prince William County (including Manassas and Manassas Park), 105 in Loudoun County, 95 in James City County and 88 in Virginia Beach.

The Fairfax County Health Department reported three additional deaths Wednesday due to the coronavirus. The health district has confirmed five total deaths related to COVID-19. Health officials said the three hospitalized patients who died included a man in his 60s, a man in his 80s and a man in his 90s. All three were included in previous COVID-19 case counts.

On Wednesday, the Rappahannock Area Health District confirmed its first death from the new coronavirus, or COVID-19 — a resident from Spotsylvania County in his 60s. The results of the man's coronavirus test came back positive Tuesday, two days after he had died at the Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center.

As Virginia officials and health care centers attempt to expand their capacity, they are also working to acquire larger quantities of personal protective equipment. If the state's supply of PPE does not increase, hospitals and medical centers will remain constrained, even if new hospital bed capacity is added, Dr. Daniel Carey, Virginia's secretary of health and human resources, said at the press briefing.

"There's no question that if PPE supplies aren't dramatically increased in the weeks ahead, we will not be able to protect the current health care workers in their current setting, let alone expanded capacity," Carey said. "We have to have more PPE."

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This article originally appeared on the Fredericksburg Patch