Responding to a critical need, our mobile unit of more than 50 beds will expand capacity for Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster.

Samaritan’s Purse is preparing to open an Emergency Field Hospital in Lancaster, California, to care for people suffering from COVID-19. A Disaster Assistance Response Team is already on the ground, with more personnel coming in the next couple days.

Crews load the DC-8 for the airlift to Lancaster.

The mobile unit of 50-plus beds will receive patients in the parking lot of Antelope Valley Hospital, our local medical partner. Patients treated at our site will be limited to those who are COVID-positive but do not need the support of a ventilator.

“Here in Lancaster, at Antelope Valley Hospital, the rooms and the wards are completely overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. The doctors and nurses themselves can’t get a reprieve,” said Edward Graham, assistant to the vice president of programs and government relations for Samaritan’s Purse. “There’s no break, they don’t see the end of this and they’ve asked for help—along with the community leaders, the mayor, and the church leadership here.”

The tents for our Emergency Field Hospital are being set up in Los Angeles County.

The COVID-19 outbreak is dire in California, as it is among the states with the most confirmed cases per capita. Lancaster is located in Los Angeles County, where one person is dying from the coronavirus every eight minutes. Of the more than 8,000 patients hospitalised, about 20 percent are in intensive care. Sadly, more than 12,000 coronavirus patients have died so far in Los Angeles County.

Please pray for our teams as they set up the hospital and ready it to receive patients. Please pray for those who are sick with the coronavirus and for our local medical partner as we work together to help save lives during this deadly pandemic.