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Local officials expected to have plan to double, triple hospital capacity

Governor DeWine expects a rough draft on his desk by 8 Saturday morning.

TOLEDO, Ohio — "We are now really closing up the planning and moving into the action," Governor Mike DeWine said at the Friday press conference.

By 8 a.m. Saturday morning, Governor DeWine expects rough drafts of plans from northwest Ohio and the rest of the state on how to accommodate two to three times more hospital patients in the coming weeks.

"It's always a work in progress, there will always be some changes, but a completed draft by 12 noon on Monday," DeWine said.

Here's what we know so far locally: A spokesperson at UTMC says they already added more negative airflow rooms, the type that are vital to intensive care units. They are now looking to convert an entire area of the hospital to negative air.

According to local nurses we've spoken to anonymously, the heart and vascular unit at Mercy St. Vincent's is turning into an ICU area for coronavirus with negative airflow rooms and ProMedica has stopped all surgeries unless they are emergencies.

Right now, the leaders in our area have released this statement "We are in communication with the Governor's office and and planning next steps. More will become clear in the next 24-48 hours."

"I have asked General Harris from the Ohio National Guard to oversee this buildup," DeWine said.

While we can't know exactly what the buildup capacity will look like in our area, places like New York City that are starting to see a large influx of patients have already worked with the National Guard to set up temporary hospital spaces.

We can expect more information from the Governor Saturday at his press conference. 

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