Wisconsin's governor has announced the opening of a field hospital at the state fairgrounds 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, with 216 of them in intensive care. Results of COVID-19 tests 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.
