Sleep Train Arena’s coronavirus hospital to be ready for patients in 2 weeks, Newsom says
Sacramento’s shuttered Sleep Train Arena will reopen in two weeks as an emergency field hospital, the latest in a series of coronavirus crisis care centers under construction around California, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Monday.
Standing at a podium on the arena floor, Newsom said a 400-bed alternative care center at the former home of the Sacramento Kings will be among a dozen-plus such sites to handle overflow patients in late April and in May when the virus spread is expected to hit its surge moment.
He thanked the Sacramento Kings basketball organization, which donated the site “before we asked,” and called again on state residents to continue staying at home to the state some time to prepare additional medical resources.
Newsom’s team projects California will need 50,000 more hospital beds than the 75,000 currently available in state hospitals during what he calls “Phase One” of the coronavirus surge, which will last through April.
The Sleep Train site will be used if Northern California hospitals become filled and can no longer handle regular caseloads along with COVID-19 patients.
State officials have been in talks with Sacramento city officials in recent days, in part to allay concerns among local residents, Natomas-area Councilwoman Angelique Ashby said.
“Obviously, it is our hope that it won’t be needed,” Ashby said. “But if we do, it will be here — ready to serve our community. We will continue to work with the Kings, the State of California and the federal government to put our city in the best possible position to help as many people as we can.”
Other California coronavirus field centers include:
The Navy’s Mercy hospital ship, ported in Los Angeles, has 550 beds in use
Existing hospitals in Daly City, Los Angeles, Long Beach and Costa Mesa that were recently closed or planned for closure are being or expected to be transformed to handle patients during the crisis.
- 250 beds at Santa Clara Convention Center
- 250 beds at San Mateo County Event Center
- 250-bed site in San Diego County
- Other sites include Fairview, Porterville, Shasta, and Fresno
They’ll treat mild coronavirus patients
In a statement issued Monday, the state Health and Human Services agency said alternate care sites will receive “patients who have been discharged from hospitals and, if needed, from emergency departments, but still need some care and medical monitoring.
“With local and state approval, they may also accept patients directly from the 911 system.”
The field hospitals, however, may be tasked with taking care of some “mildly to moderately symptomatic COVID‐19 patients, including those who have not yet tested positive but are presumed to be. This includes patients who may need oxygen, but who do not require extensive nursing care, and who can generally move about on their own.
“If the layout of the facility allows for clear separation of patients, alternate care sites may also be used for non-COVID-19 patients.
The alternative care sites will be staffed by doctors and nurses who have signed up via the state’s California Health Corps, state health officials said.
So far, in Sacramento County, health officials say they believe hospitals have enough space to handle the expected surge of coronavirus patients. Health officials in Placer County say they are not as confident, depending on the scale of the spike in cases.
When will California’s COVID-19 cases peak?
California-wide, the patient-load modeling predicts the virus spread will overwhelm even the expanded capacity by mid-May, Newsom said last week.
National numbers released by President Donald Trump’s administration show the state is doing better than others at preventing the spread of infection. An independent and widely cited University of Washington coronavirus monitoring projects California could see new cases approach their peak as early as next week.
The Newsom administration has said it sees the peak hitting in May. Newsom on Friday declined to answer questions about how the state’s modeling differs from others.
Already, California hospitals are treating nearly 2,500 coronavirus patients and an additional 3,100 people suspected of having the virus, according to the state’s Department of Public Health.
To accommodate the escalating number of COVID-19 patients, the Newsom administration is also seeking more health care workers. More than 70,000 people have already signed up for the California Health Corps established last week, Newsom said. That includes doctors and nurses who have stopped practicing or want to expand their practice, as well as medical students close to finishing their degrees.
Health workers treating coronavirus patients are vulnerable to the disease, especially as hospitals face shortages of protective equipment like masks and gloves.Nearly 200 health care workers in California have tested positive for coronavirus, according to data released Sunday by the Department of Public Health. That’s out of 13,438 total positive cases.
The department is not releasing the number of health workers who have died from the virus. Last week, Los Angeles County announced the first health worker to die from COVID-19 in the United States.
Overall, 319 people with the coronavirus have died in California, according to the Department of Public Health. Experts say official COVID-19 death tolls are undercounting people because of limited testing, according to reporting by The Washington Post.
This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 1:46 PM.