As the University Medical Center of El Paso continues to be overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients as local cases surge, El Paso Children's Hospital will begin taking non-Covid patients starting Monday hospital officials tell CNN.
"It's a banana sandwich here as I'm sure you've heard," UMC Director of Public Affairs Ryan Mielke told CNN Monday. "We are overwhelmed with patients at this point. However, we have a strong partnership with El Paso Children's hospital."
Mielke said the ninth floor of Children's is open for non-Covid patients from UMC and the transfers have already begun.
Mielke said the hospital has received more than 100 additional medical staff and has set up emergency isolation tents in the hospital parking lots where Covid-19 overflow patients are being sent.
Mielke confirmed hospital staff are becoming infected as well.
“We are not immune by any stretch of the imagination,” he said.
He said that while the hospital is adequately staffed at the moment, they have asked the governor for additional medical personnel, a service the Department of Emergency Management provides.
"The bottom line is the coronavirus is spreading fast and it's spreading fast throughout our city," Mielke said.