UNC Health provided an update to the public on Monday about its treatment of COVID-19 patients, stockpiles of medical supplies and preparation for more cases soon.

The health system first confirmed it was treating a positive COVID-19 case in its health system on March 19. Since then, Christian Lawson, UNC Medical Center’s Clinical Director of Emergency Services, has been working with UNC Health’s leadership to coordinate the system’s response to the pandemic.

Lawson fielded questions from the media over a teleconference call on Monday. He gave an update on how UNC Health’s main campus in Chapel Hill is faring right now with beds at 60 percent occupancy, saying it’s been unusually quiet with many people staying home.

“That means we have a lot of open beds, which we’ve never seen or experienced this,” said Lawson. “It’s a really eerie calm before the storm. I’ve equated it to being tied up to an old boat dock in the ocean and you can see the tsunami coming.”

The health system has been able to achieve this relative calm by rescheduling many elective surgeries, in addition to the emergency rooms being more open due to fewer patients. When responding to a question about the sizes and roles of its COVID-19 response teams, Lawson indicated UNC Health has been planning which nursing units and cohort areas will be assigned to coronavirus response when the patient numbers begin to rise.

“I’ve got friends up in New Jersey that [say] 50 percent of their hospitals are full of COVID-19 patients,” he said. “That means the majority of your entire hospital is on a COVID team. The numbers are growing every day, but we’re making plans to make our entire hospital, and God forbid it comes to that, COVID-trained.”

One of the biggest concerns around the country is the amount of personal protective equipment, or PPE, for health care workers. Lawson said the health system is working off models that estimate about 30 individual PPE is used to treat one COVID-19 patient. But he also said assigning nurse units to the coronavirus response teams will help decrease that amount.

In addition, Lawson said the system’s supply chain has adequate amounts of PPE right now, saying they’re working on the new rhythm of using and replenishing those items. He said UNC Health’s locations are still receiving the crucial N95 masks, gloves and gowns on a regular basis and may even see increases soon.

“Are they the quantities we’ve received historically? No, because of those gaps in the manufacturing,” said Lawson. “But very quickly, we’re seeing those numbers and orders slowly increase, meaning the supply chain is beginning to fill back up with appropriate PPE.”

While UNC Health is being conscious of its PPE use, Lawson said the health system has received more than half a million items donated so far from around the state. He said to him, the community coming together to give during such a time of need is very powerful.

“The sheer outpouring of the community really brings back the thought of how great of a country and region we are,” he said, “and that there is humanity still out there.”

Ultimately, Lawson said he’s working to ensure UNC Health’s response goes above and beyond instead of facing the dire consequences of being underprepared.

“I want to be criticized in six months for over-planning and likely spending too much money,” Lawson ended the press conference with. “But I think we can not mess around with this virus and every plan we can think through needs to be vetted.”

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