![Dr. Brian Harte is president of Cleveland Clinic Akron General. He says no amount of medical innovation can prevent Akron's hospitals from being overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients if the public doesn't follow the strict prevention guidelines. [JEFF ST.CLAIR / WKSU]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/01b563b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3686x2848+0+0/resize/840x650!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fimages%2Fnews%2Fnpr%2F2020%2F03%2F823799947_1692508199.jpg)
New models show a wave of coronavirus cases could be headed our way in Northeast Ohio.
The Cleveland Clinic’s latest estimates show the outbreak will peak in early May and could cause up to 10,000 new COVID-19 cases per day.
It’s a sobering picture, but our local hospitals are gearing up for the surge.
Cleveland Clinic Akron General president Dr. Brian Harte says local hospitals are preparing.
Dr. Brian Harte, president of Cleveland Clinic Akron General, says the new models of the outbreak's progress are scary.
“When it happens," he said, "it'll be somewhere between fast and really fast.”
But the stay-at-home order in Ohio is buying time for hospitals to prepare for the surge, Harte said.
His hospital is doing its best to get ready, but for now he says there’s a sense of calm before the storm.
"We're hopeful and confident in our preparations," Harte says. "But there's also a bit of tension and anxiety in the air, because we don't know exactly what the future holds."
The Akron area has around 1,360 total hospital beds, according to ProPublica, with 60 percent current occupancy.
Harte says no amount of hospital innovation can prevent the system from being overwhelmed if the public doesn’t practice physical distancing to slow the viral spread.
More testing needed
Weeks into the coronavirus outbreak, testing for COVID-19 remains limited in Ohio and across the nation.
Shortages in supplies have forced hospitals to test only the sickest patients and frontline healthcare workers.
The Cleveland Clinic can’t expand coronavirus testing beyond its main campus due to a shortage of lab equipment, Harte said, which means health officals in the region are still 'flying blind' in terms of tracking its spread.
“We haven't had a spotlight that we can shine on where this disease is, who has this virus, and who is recovered from it, and that's what we need," he said.
Some private labs, including Abbott, are developing testing protocols that don’t require the same quantity of lab equipment as current techniques.
But Harte said those are still weeks away.
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