Amid growing public interest and concern surrounding COVID-19, healthcare providers are seeing a rising number of people seek testing and care.
“It seems to be picking up,” Dr. Martin McElya with the neighborhood Medical Center in Dallas said.
For the last three days McElya has been tending to people concerned they may have the coronavirus in a temporary drive through that aims to make the process more convenient and also separate them from other patients concerned about transmission.
According to McElya, since Wednesday, they have identified nine suspected cases of coronavirus.
All nine have been tested and instructed to quarantine at home, with the first round of test results expected back today.
“The ones that are in the throes of the symptom phase kind of have a red glow, they are sweaty, they are hot, uncomfortable, usually a significant fever,” McElya said.
Across DFW, hospital systems are preparing for a surge in patients expected to far surpass what is normally seen with the seasonal flu.
“We keep an inventory of beds, we know where the beds are, we know the availability of beds,” DFW Hospital Council President Stephen Love said.
“And at the same time, we have command centers set up at each hospital,” he said.
Below you can see what many of the major hospital systems told NBC 5 of what they are doing to prepare.
Perhaps most noteworthy, UT Southwestern has erected a temporary tent to expand their capacity.
Click on the links to get more information for policies on prevention and safety for these medical facilites: Cook Children's Medical Center | Medical City Healthcare | Parkland | JPS Health | Texas Health Resources
