Yale Opens Makeshift Covid-19 Beds To Broader Community

Yale

Yale is making room for New Haven COVID-19 patients at the field hospital it set up at Payne Whitney Gymasium.

The university set up the makeshift space last month inside the gym’s Lanman Center, usually used for basketball and volleyball and jogging, with more than 100 beds to prepare for Yale community members who contract the disease.

It has now decided to turn the facility over to Yale New Haven Health to serve not just university people but anyone the hospital may need to put in a bed, according to this report by the Yale News bureau’s Jim Shelton. (Yale New Haven Health/Hospital is a separate corporate entity from Yale University.)

So far the beds have lain empty as the coronavirus began spreading through town. The number of people falling ill and dying has now started to climb, with a peak expected in coming weeks. This facility is part of Yale New Haven Hospital’s broader strategy of trying to avoid running out of beds when that peak arrives. The hospital has also tapped facilities at Southern Connecticut State University and Yale New Haven Shoreline Medical Center to expand its capacity from 1,541 to 1,909 beds.

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