An emergency field hospital is being set up at Lambton College.
The school's west and east gymnasiums are being transformed into a 150-bed hospital as part of a provincial call to action for "next level" pandemic preparedness.
The facility is being equipped by the City of Sarnia's Emergency Management Operations Group (EMOC) with beds and cots.
Bluewater Health Chief of Staff Dr. Mike Haddad told an online community news conference Tuesday that they hope they won't have to move any patients to the college site, but they have to be ready.
"We actually have about a hundred beds ready within the hospital itself, and we have plans for the ICU to double up in terms of volume as needed, we have plans to even spill into spaces of the hospital that don't have patient beds for now," said Haddad. "But as a last line of defence we can spill over into community spaces as well, we're not there yet in terms of need but we have to be prepared."
Lambton College President and CEO Judy Morris said the college is honoured to help the community and the hospital in the fight against COVID-19.
"Lambton College is a community college and anything that we can do to be of help to any of the healthcare providers, the city, the county or whomever to help support people in helping fight against this pandemic is absolutely what we want to do," said Morris. "We are here for the community, and I want that message to be really clear."
The hospital is currently running at 55 per cent capacity and there are about 40 beds in use for COVID patients. The hospital has a capacity of over 300 beds and can over-bed with an additional 84 beds.
Dr. Haddad said the hospital is working to save and reuse personal protective equipment (PPE) as much as possible until supply chains improve. He said they're good for the next couple of weeks. -With files from Colin Gowdy and Dave Dentinger