The former Sandhills Regional Medical Center was leased to care for non-COVID-19 patients should hospitals elsewhere become overwhelmed treating people with coronavirus., according to an article on the News-Observer website.
The shelter hasn’t been needed. The surge of coronavirus patients hasn’t happened, largely because people have stayed home and physically apart, N.C. and hospital officials say.
But the state isn’t dismantling the shelter just yet. If the coronavirus outbreak intensifies as businesses reopen and people get out again, the shelter can be made ready to take patients within four or five days.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers looked at more than 40 places across North Carolina that could be used to house or care for people if hospitals filled with COVID-19 patients, but this was the only state medical shelter that came into being.
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