Oct. 7, 2020 1:55p
(AP) — Wisconsin's governor has announced a field hospital at the state fairgrounds will open within the next week as a surge in COVID-19 cases threatens to overwhelm hospitals.
According to the state Department of Health Services, only 16% of the state's 11,452 hospital beds are available as of Tuesday afternoon.
The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has grown to 853, including 216 in intensive care. COVID-19 test results on an additional 262 in-patients are pending.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a 530-bed field hospital on the state fairgrounds in West Allis in April but hospitalizations hadn't increased so much that it needed to open until now.
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