Colorado orders refrigerated trucks, plans new hospital sites as state prepares

Colorado health officials have ordered 10 refrigerator trucks and identified five locations to serve as medical sites as part of their preparation for the possibility that the new coronavirus could overrun the state’s hospitals and morgues with patients and bodies.

The preparations come as the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment expects the number of cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, to peak in the coming weeks. Officials at the agency have said they are concerned about a shortage of intensive care resources, including beds, ventilators and workers.

The Army Corps of Engineers will begin construction at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver and The Ranch events complex in Loveland on Friday so they can be used to care for patients who no longer require critical care.

Construction on both makeshift hospitals, which will be able to care for more than 3,000 patients between them, is expected to finish this month, according to a news release.

“These will have resources and staff capable of caring for patients who are recovering from COVID19,” the Department of Public Health and Environment tweeted.

The state health department also has signed letters of intent to use three former medical facilities across the state in order to provide a higher level of care than the convention center or fairgrounds. These facilities include St. Anthony North in Westminster, St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center in Pueblo and Western

Slope Memory Care

Junction.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Colorado counties, including Summit and Eagle, have asked the Department of Public Health and Environment for resources for makeshift hospitals as part of their preparations for a surge in patients, according to state records.

“We only have hospital beds for 15 patients and are expecting a massive influx of sick patients,” Summit County officials wrote in their request last month.

Health officials with Summit and Eagle counties could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The Department of Public Health and Environment is still determining where it will deploy the refrigerator trucks, which will serve as makeshift morgues.

“We really hope we will not

in Grand have to use them,” a spokeswoman for the state health department who declined to identify herself said in an email. “There may still be many deaths from COVID-19, and we need to be prepared for that.”

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office requested a refrigerated semi-trailer from state officials in March to use as a temporary morgue. It has not yet received the trailer from the state, however the county has procured two refrigerated containers that are expected to arrive in a couple of weeks.

The coroner’s office has the ability to hold 40 bodies, but the capacity is often a third or half full, said Chief Deputy Coroner Dan Pruett.

“This is pre-planning for what we don’t really know what to expect,” he said. “There’s talk of a surge and a spike in death cases.”