IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
A former Sears building in Riverside will serve as a temporary hospital for Riverside County during the COVID-19 epidemic.
The 90,0000-square-foot building in the 5200 block of Arlington Ave. will be the county’s second federal medical station, with 125 beds and equipment from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to a statement on the city’s website.
No opening date was announced. About 30 to 40 people are expected to work there.
Members of the California National Guard will set up the hospital this week. County officials hope the extra beds – the facility will be equipped with everything needed to run a regular hospital – will help it deal with an expected rise in COVID-19 cases.
“There will be many folks who’ll need care when our hospitals start taking hits, and this second station means we’ll have the same added capacity in our western county as we do in the east,” said Dr. Cameron Kaiser, the county’s public health officer, in the statement.
Local hospitals will move more stable Coronavirus patients to the former Sears building, just as they are doing with an identical U.S. medical station operating at the Indio fairgrounds. This will free up space in regular hospitals for more critical patients.
“We will very soon need every single hospital bed in Riverside County,” Second District Supervisor Karen Spiegel said in the statement. “This medical station will give us sorely needed bed space, so that medical teams can continue their efforts to treat more patients in need.”
