Source: WRAL, 3/30/20


There are more than 21,000 hospital beds in North Carolina. About a third are vacant. Space is much tighter for beds in intensive care, where only 22% of the state's 3,200 beds are currently empty. Although it is flu season, the vacancy rate is below the average because some hospitals have canceled elective procedures to free up space. "Hospital beds and ICU beds will be in short supply, and we're going to need every one we can find," says Dr. Mark Holmes of UNC Chapel Hill's Gillings School of Public Health.

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