<p class="p1"><span class="s1">States are cancelling plans to build additional hospitals as the number of COVID-19 cases falls sort of experts&#8217; predictions. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">“At this point, our hospitals should have enough capacity to support a surge in patients,” says Washington Governor Jay Inslee, whose state recently packed up a field hospital constructed at the start of the crisis. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">New York and Michigan cancelled plans to build additional hospitals as officials adjusted predictions for bed use. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Last month, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) predicted the US would be using up to 225,000 hospital beds for COVID-19 patients right now. </span><span class="s1">A week ago, the IHME adjusted that prediction to 140,000 beds. Today, we are using no more than 60,000 beds for COVID-19 patients. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">An emergency hospital constructed inside New York’s Javits Convention Center is using about one third of its 2,500 beds. Roughly 70 of 500 beds aboard the <em>US Navy Comfort</em> &#8211; a hospital ship deployed to Manhattan &#8211; are in use. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">“The pandemic response is clearly not over, nor has the risk to the city healthcare system passed,” notes Lt. Col. Richard Goldenberg, a member of the New York Army National Guard. “And the capacity at the Javits NY medical Station provides the safeguards and relief for those city hospitals.” </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Other factors affecting bed availability include the cancellation of elective surgeries and a sharp decrease in accidents. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">“Over time, what we started to see was because of everyone staying at home, car accidents were down [and] other injuries were down,” says David Norquist, Deputy Secretary of Defense. “The demand for a trauma center was lower so we reconfigured the Javits &#8211; spread the beds out [and] made them available.&#8221;</span></p>
<p>The <em>US Navy Mercy</em>, which is parked near Los Angeles,<span class="s1"> is using just 20 of its 1,000 beds. Hospitals in New Jersey and Louisiana report having enough </span><span class="s1">beds, ventilators, and PPE on hand for another surge. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">“We’re likely to see a plateau rather than a peak,” says Dr. Jason Smith, chief medical officer of University of Louisville Hospital, meaning cases will appear steadily rather than in sudden jumps. </span><span class="s1">U of L is currently using about 62 of its 170 ventilators.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">“When we started all these exercises [for COVID-19], we didn’t know really what we’d see. Now that we’ve got a few weeks of data…we’ve got a lot of capacity. I’m confident now with where we’re at.”</span></p>
<p><span class="s1">Moving forward, military officials are identifying which cities will need extra healthcare workers and field clinics to cope with the expected surge at the end of the month. </span></p>