Half Fresno’s coronavirus beds shipped away, but county reveals local reserve supply 

The Fresno convention center lost more than half its emergency hospital beds this week as federal authorities shuffle medical supplies around the nation to combat coronavirus hotspots, county officials told The Bee.

But county officials say they will backfill the exhibit hall with a reserve of local beds already on hand.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers picked up 125 of the 250 hospital beds in Fresno to take to San Diego this week, according to Fresno County spokesman Jordan Scott. Community Regional Medical Center picked up another 50 beds to prepare for a possible surge in coronavirus patients.

A stash of beds in San Diego was transferred to the east coast to help a spike in COVID-19 patients in New Jersey. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pulled the beds from Fresno and Los Angeles to help resupply San Diego, Scott said.

But Fresno County already had beds in reserves to fill the field hospital back up. They have been moved into the convention center and await set-up.

“It just means we tap into the resources we had on-site,” Scott said. “We have 175 beds, and we have additional beds to fill any gaps that may come up.”

Fresno had been sitting on over 300 beds to deal with an emergency like this one, Scott said. He said the county would have used the beds had the federal government not picked Fresno as a medical station. Because these beds belong to the county, Scott said they would remain in Fresno.

It’s unclear why county officials hadn’t mentioned the reserve supply before Wednesday, and Scott did not immediately answer that question.

The exhibit hall will only transition from a storage facility to a pop-up hospital if local hospitals reach capacity. The beds are not intended to treat COVID-19 patients. Instead, they will house patients with other illnesses who no longer require intensive care, to make room in the hospitals for severe COVID-19 cases.

As of Monday, more than 30 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Fresno County, and 14 of them were in intensive care units. Five people have died, and 37 have recovered.

“We hope to never have a need to use the site,” Scott said.

This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 2:48 PM.