Toner has been encouraging hospitals to prepare for a potential wave of coronavirus patients using numbers from a more familiar outbreak, an influenza pandemic. If the pandemic was very severe, 40 million would need medical care, but 9.6 million would need to be hospitalized and 2.9 million would need to be treated in an intensive care unit. "This is not in some dark ages medical care system, this is happening today in an advanced country with an excellent health care system." Lawler's report estimates 4.8 million patients could be admitted to hospitals in the coronavirus pandemic -- but the US doesn't even have 1 million beds. Officials with health care systems across the country say they are working hard to make sure they are as prepared as they can be.

Source: CNN March 14, 2020 04:07 UTC