Partnership may help create more hospital space

County, feds looking at sites for additional beds

Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel and other government officials are considering several locations to set up a temporary field hospital to help ease southeast Michigan’s shortage of beds as the COVID-19 cases continue to escalate.

President Donald Trump over the weekend approved Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s request for a disaster declaration, a move that opens up federal funding for emergency protective measures including medical supplies, personal protective equipment and other relief measures.

Hackel said he’s working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, which has indicated 10,000 hospital additional beds will be needed to if projections for up to 1 million becoming infected prove accurate. Macomb

County would need about 2,000 bed spaces, he added.

“We have identified several possible locations in Macomb County that could accommodate what we’re trying to do,” Hackel said Sunday. “We’re working with the Corps of Engineers and the National Guard to see which if those are viable.”

Hackel said he would not release the list of potential locations until one is selected. The next step in the process, is to develop a legal agreement for the property.

Site visits are being made across Michigan to assess and determine the necessary steps to convert existing buildings into care centers as the state directs. So far, the Army Corps has visited 15 locations.

Over the weekend, the Corps of Engineers announced it had received a verbal mission assignment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to construct a large alternate care facility at the TCF Center in downtown Detroit. The move required the cancellation of the North American International Auto Show.

Converting the property, formerly known as Cobo Center, into a two-story, 250,000-square-foot care facility will provide about 900 beds for the tri-county area. Oakland County officials are also expected to be part of the planning process, Hackel said.

Hackel said the governor’s executive orders overseeing the state’s actions on the coronavirus allows the government to take over the property due to a public health need, but he doesn’t see that happening.

The number of infected people is expected to peak around April 8, a date Hackel said he is skeptical of.

“The number of patients coming our way is based on projections by the health experts,” he said. “Now we realize there may be too many people for two few beds and we’re going to need more.”

On Sunday, state officials said 86 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported in Macomb County, bringing the county’s total to 620. Twenty local residents have died from the disease. Statewide, there are 5,486 cases and 132 deaths since the beginning of the outbreak on March 10.

Officials say the best prevention for viruses is to wash your hands often or use hand sanitizers; avoid touching your face with unwashed hands; cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or upper sleeve when coughing or sneezing; and social distancing, keeping a 6-foot length from other people when out in public.

Hackel said it appears people are taking social distancing seriously if camera images of minimal traffic he sees at the county’s Communications & Technology Center in Mount Clemens is any indication.

“These monitors show our main corridors such as Gratiot, Hall Road, Groesbeck and Van Dyke, and there’s not a lot of traffic out there,” he said.

“And people are being mindful of this even when they’re out walking their dogs. You’ll see a family trying to spread out as they walk down a sidewalk to be a certain distance from each other. It’s pretty interesting.”