Trucks with hospital beds and medical equipment pulled up outside Moore Fieldhouse on March 31, 2020, as the National Guard began the assembly of a 300-bed “Connecticut Medical Station” inside the facility. Southern is providing “overflow” beds for Yale New-Haven Hospital, in anticipation of a surge in COVID-19 patients throughout the month of April . The university has also made available 2,500 rooms in nine residence halls for an as yet undesignated purpose, although at least one hall will be used to house medical personnel.
“As a public institution dedicated to the pursuit of social justice, Southern is committed to helping the state mitigate the spread of COVID-19,’” said SCSU President Joe Bertolino. “With hundreds of graduates from our College of Health and Human Services on the front lines fighting the pandemic, it was a natural step for the university to make our facilities available during the duration of this public health crisis.”
See a photo gallery of the field house’s conversion into a field hospital
See media coverage of Southern’s conversion to a medical station:
Gov to visit ‘hospital in a box’ at SCSU (WFSB, April 1, 2020)
National Guard soldiers help build field hospital to help overflow of coronavirus patients (WTNH, April 1, 2020)
Field hospital for non-coronavirus patients built at SCSU (New Haven Register, March 31, 2020)
National Guard, SCSU To The Rescue (New Haven Independent, March 31, 2020)
Overflow hospital to be set up at Southern Connecticut State University (WTNH, March 31, 2020)
National Guard Sets Up Field Hospital at SCSU For Coronavirus Patients (NBC CT, March 31, 2020)
COVID-19 overflow site being constructed at SCSU (WFSB, March 31, 2020)
