New Orleans preps convention center for patients

State medical officials are preparing for Monday’s opening of the Morial Convention Center, which is being converted into a medical support facility to help local hospitals care for patients infected with the new coronavirus.

The plan is for the most critical patients to remain in hospitals and give those with less severe symptoms but in need of medical care a place to go.

Joe Kanter, assistant state health officer with the Louisiana Department of Health and among those on the tour of the convention center, told media the next three weeks are “incredibly critical.”

Part of the facility’s purpose is to also keep COVID-positive patients away from the general population.

— AP