Minnesota emergency management officials are planning 2,750 additional hospital beds to help respond to the coronavirus pandemic, according to an article on the Twin Cities Pioneer Press website.
These beds would create “alternate care sites” to allow hospitals to handle an anticipated surge of sick patients when the epidemic peaks.
One site considered is a shuttered private prison in western Minnesota.
The alternate care sites are not planned for COVID-19 patients, but rather for other patients whose conditions are generally stable and unlikely to need intensive care treatment.
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