[Mariner]

We have a total of ~925k hospital beds in the nation.
We keep them about 65% utilized, on average.
There are approximately 300k beds open, on average.

But the flu is using some as it’s still having a moderate seasonal impact.

Let’s say for the sake of argument there are 250k beds open.

How many of those beds are at least isolated? How many in ICU?
How many can handle SARS?

[mrsmith]

Michael Cruickshank‏ @MJ_Cruickshank
German Chancellor Angela Merkel now saying that 60-70 percent of the population could be infected by #COVID19

[cgbg]

The problem with hospitals is that most of them are not designed for the necessary containment of an aerosol virus.

Some hospitals have wings that can handle it, but the rest of the hospital cannot.

However, imho many hospitals will be hit hard at the infrastructure level—receptionists, maintenance workers, technicians, nurses, pharmacists, bookkeeping are more likely to be infected from nonsymptomatic hospital visitors than other random folks in the community.

Bottom line: There will need to be new facilities created on a large scale to handle the epidemic.

Hospitals will be places that will be spreading the infection more than mitigating it.