MA Coronavirus: 8,000 Hospital Beds Available

BOURNE, MA — The Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Tuesday announced 113 more deaths from the new coronavirus, bringing the state's death toll to 957. Officials also announced nearly 1,300 more cases, bringing the total to 28,163.

As the number of deaths and cases continue to increase, state officials have looked for ways to open more treatment facilities to keep hospitals from becoming overwhelmed by the pandemic.

Gov. Charlie Baker said about half the state's nearly 16,000 hospital beds are available for patients suffering from COVID-19.

Some 2,000 beds are available for intensive care, about 5,000 are available for non-intensive care, and another 1,000 beds are available in five newly opened field hospitals, Baker said.He added that the state began posting daily updates on bed availability.

State officials broke down bed availability by region, and areas like the MetroWest and Northeastern part of the state saw the least number of available beds.

In Metrowest, 60 percent of the region's 2,500 beds were already occupied as of Tuesday afternoon. In the northeastern part of the state, 58 percent of the region's 1,900 beds were occupied. See a full regional breakdown in the report here.

New Massachusetts coronavirus facilities

In Baker's daily news conference, he offered some details on the new field hospitals, including a 140-bed unit at UMass Dartmouth and a 94-bed center at the Cape Cod Joint Base in Buzzards Bay.

Baker spoke while touring the Cape Cod facility, which was set up in six days by Cape Cod Healthcare in partnership with the National Guard. He said the facility looks a lot like the field hospital set up at the DCU Center in Worcester.

"We are all incredibly grateful for the work that's been done by the National Guard across the commonwealth," Baker said. "It [the facility] went from nothing to what it is now: fully outfitted and ready to go."

Baker said the National Guard's role in battling the new coronavirus crisis will expand. He announced the signing of an executive order to increase the Guard's response from 2,000 to 5,000 members. This will allow for more flexibility with the emergency response, he said.

Mobile coronavirus testing in Massachusetts

The state is also offering mobile testing sites for residents in assisted living and other group homes. Baker said there are now 28 dedicated testing sites in Massachusetts.

"We think testing is a big part of identifying people who are dealing with COVID-19," Baker said.

But Baker said another important factor is knowing who people with the virus have come in contact with. He said the state officials are working on creating the largest contract tracing system in the United States.

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