Mayor Opens Convention Health Care Facility – Kids’ Inflammatory Reaction Shows Up In DC

Mayor Bowser announced the opening of the convention center as an alternate surge care facility today.

Mayor Opens Convention Health Care Facility – Bullet Points from Today’s Press Briefing

by Larry Janezich

Today, Mayor Bowser announced the opening of the DC Convention Center as an alternate care site to support DC’s COVID-19 surge response.  The site can accommodate 437 beds and is ready to accept 100 patients this week.  It will begin accepting low-acuity patients when DC hospitals approach surge bed capacity.

The Mayor took questions from the press following the announcement.

Bullet points:

• Children’s Hospital has seen one case of the rare inflammatory reaction among children that has befallen 73 children in New York.
• A decision about extending the Shelter in Place
• Current hospital capacity without surge is at 71%.
• Expect a late May peek for hospitalization.
• Nursing homes are not allowed to decline admission because of the Covid-19 status.
• DC Health Lab has a capacity of between 300 and 500 tests per day. The highest number of tests administered in one day so far has been 289. A total of 30,000 tests have been administered so far from all venues in the city, including private labs and hospitals.
• A decision about extending the shelter in place order will come this week.