Hospitals plan for 'COVID cabanas,' conference rooms to house patients

FILE PHOTO: Newly erected negative pressure screening tents are set up outside the emergency room entrance at University of Utah hospital as they prepare for coronavirus testing, in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., March 9, 2020. REUTERS/George Frey

(Reuters) - U.S. hospitals, bracing for a surge in demand as more Americans are infected with the novel coronavirus, plan to use tents, conference rooms and cafeterias to house overflow patients.

Scripps Health, which operates five hospital campuses in San Diego County, is starting to set up tents outside its clinics to screen people for the virus. "By Friday we will have what we are euphemistically calling COVID cabanas at two of our clinics," Chris Van Gorder, its chief executive, told Reuters.