(CALMATTERS) – One big sign that the worst of the coronavirus outbreak in California is over — at least for now: Nearly all of the alternate care sites set up to handle a projected surge in coronavirus patients have closed or will close in the next few months, the state announced Wednesday.
That’s more than $26 million for about 426 patients (not counting the USNS Mercy).
But at the outset of the pandemic in March, when predictions swirled that 56% of Californians could be infected with coronavirus in a few months, the state was scrambling to ensure it wouldn’t end up with overflowing hospitals like New York and set a goal of obtaining 50,000 hospital beds.
Not all alternate care sites are being shut down.
A federal medical station is being deployed to Imperial County, which has the highest per-capita hospitalization rate in the state and which has two hospitals that turned away new coronavirus patients Tuesday after admitting an influx of patients from Mexico.
