Governor Brian P. Kemp and the Coronavirus Task Force announced plans to deploy four temporary medical units for eighty-eight hospital beds and expanded capacity at two reopened healthcare facilities for 208 beds to prepare for COVID-19 patient surge. The state has committed roughly $72 million for these projects, including $12 million for additional medical staff at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany.

The state has purchased four temporary medical units with a total of eighty-eight beds. One unit with twenty beds will be located in Rome. One unit with twenty beds will be located in Albany. One unit with twenty-four beds will be placed in Atlanta. One more unit with twenty-four beds will be available to deploy based on community needs. These units will be deployed in mid-April.

At the reopened Phoebe North Campus in Albany, there will be twelve new ICU beds available within the week, fifteen general beds and fifteen ICU beds by mid-April, and fifty-nine general beds in May. At the reopened HCA Eastside Medical Center in Snellville, there will be a rolling start of twenty-four ICU beds and thirty-six general beds within a week and a rolling start, depending on staff availability, of thirty ICU beds and seventeen general beds by late April.

“These projects have been underway for several weeks based on modeling and epidemiological recommendations, and we are following leads on several more proposals to expand healthcare capacity as we prepare for patient surge later this month,” said Governor Kemp. “At every stage of decision-making, our team is consulting with public health and emergency management experts in the private and public sectors. Together, we are working around the clock to prepare for future needs in our fight against the spread of COVID-19 in Georgia. In the days ahead, we will finalize additional projects to expand our capacity and get critically needed resources to frontline medical providers.”

The Department of Community Health, Department of Public Health, Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, Georgia National Guard, and Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget are working closely with federal agencies, members of the Coronavirus Task Force, the General Assembly, private-sector partners, and community leaders across Georgia to prepare the state’s healthcare network for increased patient surge and medical needs.