San Mateo Event Center To Be Used As Coronavirus Field Hospital

REDWOOD CITY, CA – San Mateo officials Monday announced plans to convert the San Mateo Event Center into a field hospital in anticipation of a projected surge of patients infected with the new coronavirus.

The 250-bed field hospital will house low-acuity COVID-19 patients.

The county’s case count of COVID-19 infected persons swelled to 309 after it reported 32 new cases Monday and is expected to continue to grow in the coming weeks despite shelter-in-place orders.

The county has reported 144 new cases since Wednesday March 25, when it reported 165 known cases. The county has experienced six known COVID-19-related deaths.

The county has partnered with federal and state agencies to bring critical supplies to the Event Center. Supplies and equipment were delivered to the facility on Sunday and the National Guard is expected to be there through Tuesday helping state and county workers establish the field treatment site.

No patients will be housed at the facility immediately, the county said. Officials just want to be ready.

“The latest projections estimate that a medical surge could push the hospitals in our county to capacity and we’ll need another location to house patients requiring particular levels of care,” County Manager Mike Callagy said in a statement.

“We can’t just wait to see if this will happen. We need to prepare now so that we can be ready to care for our friends, neighbors and loved ones when they need it most.”

The county is asking the public to donate personal protective equipment for use at the facility.

Supplies in demand are:

• Unused N95 respirators and surgical masks. Packages can be opened, as long as they have not been used.

• Unopened packages of disposable gloves

• Unopened containers of hand sanitizer

• Unopened containers of disinfectants and disinfecting wipes

• Packaged, unused protective goggles

Personal protective equipment supplies can be dropped off Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Maple Street Correctional Facility, 1300 Maple St., Redwood City.

Those interested in donating should follow the “donations” sign to staffed collection bins in the parking lot.

Only items on the list above will be accepted.

Businesses with medical supplies to donate should email smcmeddonations@smcgov.org