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Lee and Collier Push Back COVID-19 Field Hospital Plans

WGCU | By Andrea Perdomo
Published April 23, 2020 at 4:59 PM EDT
Chief Mass Communication Specialist Barry Riley
/
U.S. Navy
Soldiers assigned to the 531st field Hospital Center build shelving at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.

On Thursday, the Florida State Emergency Operations Center announced it will demobilize a 250-bed field hospital that was staged in Lee County.

The agency said in a statement the decision was made because county hospitals have maintained available bed capacity during the COVID-19 outbreak, and that it is poised to deploy field hospitals and staff to Lee County if needed.

In Collier County, Director of the Bureau of Emergency Services Division Dan Summers said recently during a conference call for the COVID-19 response in Immokalee, that there are no plans to bring field treatment operations to Immokalee.

“Let me just tell you that the severe weather that’s been rolling through our northern part of the state has made any of those field operations quite, quite problematic,” Summers said.  “And our preference right now is obviously for the best care across the board, is what I’m referring to is bricks and mortar and we are in good shape there when it comes to hospital beds.”

Summers attributed the decision to readily available hospital beds in Collier County and neighboring Lee County.

Several calls and emails to Director Summers to elaborate on plans for expanding treatment options in Immokalee were not answered.
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WGCU NewsCollier CountyLee CountyFlorida State Emergency Operations CenterCOVID-19CoronavirusLocal
Andrea Perdomo
Andrea Perdomo is a reporter for WGCU News. She started her career in public radio as an intern for the Miami-based NPR station, WLRN. Andrea graduated from Florida International University, where she was a contributing writer for the student-run newspaper, The Panther Press, and was also a member of the university's Society of Professional Journalists chapter.
See stories by Andrea Perdomo
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