California now says it needs 50,000 more hospital beds to meet coronavirus surge

New modeling shows California needs 50,000 additional hospital beds to meet the incoming surge of coronavirus patients, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday.

It’s a dramatic jump from the 20,000 extra beds Newsom said the state needed just two days ago, and reflects what the governor describes as dynamic modeling that’s constantly changing as new numbers about coronavirus infections pour in.

“We are, every day, adding to the arsenal of data that we have at our disposal,” Newsom said.

The modeling includes numbers from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, data from California and other states and additional modeling from Johns Hopkins University, Newsom said.

Every morning, Newsom says he wakes up to a new data set, which his administration runs through artificial intelligence software to predict where new cases will emerge and how much they’ll strain the state’s hospitals.

In response to the new estimates, Newsom said the state’s existing hospitals, which currently have 75,000 beds, have agreed to expand their capacity by 40 percent - adding another 30,000 beds by using outbuildings on existing campuses and setting up tents in parking lots.

The state also has already secured at least 3,000 additional beds. Those include 1,000 beds on the Navy medical ship Mercy and hundreds more at several hospitals the state is leasing.

The state has already secured three hospitals in Los Angeles, Long Beach and Daly City, and Newsom said his office is also negotiating with Sutter Health about taking over additional facilities.

The federal government has agreed to send eight field medical centers, two of which have already arrived. In total, all eight will add 2,000 beds to the state’s capacity, Newsom said. Additional beds could also be set up in fairgrounds, hotels and motels, he said.

That suggests the Newsom administration will need to secure another 15,000 beds in addition to those it has already identified. He said the state will start looking at convention centers, fairgrounds, hotels and motels and skilled nursing facilities to close the gap.

In just three months of treating a COVID-19 surge, doctors, nurses and other medical workers will go through 200 million sets of personal protective equipment, including gloves, face shields and masks, he said. The state needs to massively stock up on that equipment, too, Newsom said.

In that regard, he said the state’s ties with China will prove useful.

“We’re going to be sending charter flights from China into the state of California,” he said.

In response to media images of Californians congregating on hiking trails and beaches, Newsom took another step Monday - closing state parking lots at recreational areas.

“We need to help you help yourself,” he said.

This story was originally published March 23, 2020 at 6:00 PM with the headline "California now says it needs 50,000 more hospital beds to meet coronavirus surge."