MELBOURNE, Fla. – After witnessing a rise in COVID-19 cases among the unvaccinated across their four Melbourne hospitals, Health First officials said they are increasing emergency efforts.
Health First is setting up a treatment tent at Holmes Regional Medical Center to taper potential emergency department overflow, hospital officials said in a release.
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According to a Health First spokeperson, as of Friday, their system had 115 patients who tested positive for COVID-19, 95% of whom are unvaccinated. That number jumped to over 145 patients testing positive for COVID-19, 96% of whom are unvaccinated, on Monday.
Health First officials said it takes around 24-48 hours to set up a fully operational treatment tent, which includes sterilization, stocking supplies, electricity, water, Wi-Fi and telecommunications.
Medical staff had previously set up tents during the delta spike last summer, “successfully providing an added layer of safety and protection between our patients and associates,” the release shows.
Health First announced on Friday that its temporarily stopping non-emergency surgeries for the next two weeks. Its emergency department visitation policy was also recently amended to allow only one masked visitor at a time.