In preparation for a massive surge in novel coronavirus cases, Contra Costa County is converting a massive event venue on the Richmond waterfront into a medical station.
County officials are working with the California National Guard and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Strategic National Stockpile to convert the Craneway Pavilion by the third week of
April — which is when the virus is expected to peak in the Bay Area.
Beds and medical supplies provided by the federal government are being trucked in by the National Guard in order to create a 250-bed temporary medical facility that can care for the expected surge in COVID-19 patients,
according to county officials.
“Dedicated county physicians, nurses and other professional staff will provide vital medical care in this historic building to help prevent our local hospitals from becoming overburdened by an expected surge in patients,” said Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia in a news release announcing the conversion.
The medical station is intended for an overflow of COVID-19 patients who don’t need ICU-level care in the event that local hospitals are unable to accommodate a surge in cases.
In addition, the county is setting up other sites to care for patients outside of hospitals and is planning to use hotels for homeless residents.
The Craneway Pavilion was built as a Ford auto assembly plant in 1937 and was used to build Jeeps, tanks and other military vehicles during World War II. It is part of the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park.
“The Craneway played an essential part in winning World War II. Today it is being repurposed to fight another global war,” said Richmond Mayor Tom Butt. “This facility will help not only our local communities but contribute to the overall effort to contain COVID-19.”
Other local governments around the state and nation are also setting up new temporary medical facilities to cope with the pandemic, including San Mateo County, which now has 250 hospital beds in the County Event Center.
As of Thursday morning, Contra Costa County had 250 COVID-19 cases and 3 deaths while the state had 9,944 cases and 213 deaths.
On Tuesday, the county and several other Bay Area governments extended their stay-at-home orders through May 3 to try to limit the spread of the virus in the region.
The extension includes the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara, as well as the city of Berkeley.
9 comments
James, it will be August and they will still be telling us “two more weeks will be the surge”.
FilmYourHospital is an appropriate hash tag.
I hope you’re right. I hope it just disappears. I hope we have a beautiful miracle. Then we could pack all the churches on Easter. That’s what I’m hoping for.
You heard it here folks. Empirical evidence provided by the county’s foremost expert on the subject. /s
Well. I guess the shelter for homeless will be in place. Let’s see if they are smart enough to categorize and record. SS numbers, birth records and home (high school?) Cities etc. Those that want help will comply. Those who won’t, can be considered “special needs” and go from there.
My bet…….never gets used.
108RS
Based on what quantitative modeling?
I’m not sure what the problem is with being prepared. I’d rather they do everything they can in anticipation of a worse-case scenario and then celebrate that it wasn’t necessary. Or should we just wait until hospitals are overwhelmed? Then people would complain that we weren’t prepared.
I hope James is right, but I’m not sure he is and not sure where he got the information to formulate his opinion.
Never let a good crisis go to waste……let the “drills” and “simulations” begin
The Craneway Pavilion is a beautiful space. Of course I hope it isn’t needed for this but as another poster stated, being prepared is good.
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