PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona is pursuing a contract with a hospital system to staff a shuttered Phoenix medical center that’s set to re-open with 339 intensive care beds as the state prepares for a potential influx of patients with COVID-19, officials said Thursday.
“The world has drastically changed,” since St. Luke’s Medical Center shut down last year from a lack of demand, Gov. Doug Ducey told reporters after touring the facility east of downtown Phoenix.
He also signed an executive order Thursday that aims to shield doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians and other health care providers from lawsuits if they act in good faith in response to the public health crisis.
St. Luke’s, one of the few for-profit hospitals in Arizona, is owned by Dallas-based Steward Health Care System, which operates hospitals in nine states, including four in Arizona.
The state has also identified a location for extra hospital beds in Coconino County if northern Arizona sees an influx in cases and is looking for an option in Tucson as well, officials said. They did not identify the specific locations.
Dr. Cara Christ, head of the Arizona Department of Health Services, has said Arizona would need to nearly double its 16,000 existing hospital beds if the worst-case projections for the spread of the coronavirus come to pass. Ducey has ordered hospitals to add 50% more beds by late April. Arizona’s COVID-19 hospitalizations are expected to peak in early May.
Ducey and Christ have repeatedly refused to publicly release the state’s projections on how many people may be infected or die.
- Arizona faces an estimated $1.1 billion budget shortfall in the coming year because of the massive economic hit caused by the virus outbreak, the Legislature’s top budget analyst said.
- Arizona public health officials on Thursday reported more than 3,000 cases and nearly 90 deaths statewide related to COVID-19.
- Domestic violence has increased in Phoenix as more people remain home during the coronavirus pandemic, authorities said.
The Phoenix Police Department dispatched officers to 3,587 domestic violence calls in March as travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders were implemented to combat the spread of COVID-19, KTAR-FM reported Thursday.
It represented a 5.6% increase in officers responding to reports of family fights or aggravated assault of domestic partners, compared to the 3,395 incidents reported in March 2019, police said.
“We are seeing an increase in these types of calls, but I think it goes back to what people are living through and trying to cope through, many people aren’t working because of the public health crisis,” police Sgt. Mercedes Fortune said.
Police received 942 domestic violence calls in the first week of April, a 15% increase compared to the 820 calls made the same time last year, Fortune said.
“Regardless of the health crisis we are in right now, I think this serves as a reminder for people to be kind to each other and have a little more patience,” Fortune said.
- For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The vast majority of people recover.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.