Brooklyn Hospital Opens Coronavirus Pre-Screening Tent

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — An unassuming tent outside The Brooklyn Hospital Center could help bring people peace of mind over the new coronavirus and ease the strain on emergency rooms.

The pre-screening tent at the Fort Greene hospital campus opens Wednesday for people who think they have coronavirus. Staff inside will check the patients and, if their symptoms are severe, and shuttle them to the emergency room, officials said.

People who only have mild symptoms, or those not consistent with COVID-19, will be encouraged to self-quarantine instead of being admitted to the hospital.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who headlined a press conference Tuesday that announced the tent, said pre-screening is important so hospitals aren't overburdened during the coronavirus outbreak.

“Every cough is not coronavirus. Every sniffle is not coronavirus. Every headache is not coronavirus," he said. "And we have to be able to separate those that are dealing with allergies, flu-like symptoms, colds, asthma — we have to separate from the population that is in higher need."

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Doctors and staff at The Brooklyn Hospital Center are currently seeing about 100 patients with coronavirus-like symptoms a day, said Emergency Department Chair Sylvie DeSouza. She said pre-screening patients will help give the ER some breathing room.

Officials are concerned the spread of COVID-19 could strain hospitals. Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday morning announced 12 New Yorkers had died and nearly 1,400 had been diagnosed with the virus.

Of those, 19 percent required hospitalization, Cuomo said.

"There is a curve," Cuomo said. "I've said that curve is going to turn into a wave and the wave is going to crash on the hospital system."

Mayor Bill de Blasio also announced Tuesday that the city will partner with a private lab to increase COVID-19 tests by 5,000 a day.

The tent at Brooklyn Hospital will be open 8 a.m. to midnight starting Wednesday, DeSouza said. It is attached to the hospital's ER. The hospital is located at the corner of Dekalb Avenue and Ashland Place.

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