Time magazine details USACE's COVID-19 contributions

In March, Lieut. General Todd Semonite was two months away from retirement, getting ready to end his 40-year career with the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and retreat to his home woodworking shop. Now, he’s the architect of a nationwide plan to build thousands of emergency hospital beds in states with critical shortages, converting convention centers, sports arenas and shopping malls into makeshift hospitals.

In New York City, it’s the Javits Center. In Chicago, it’s McCormick Place. In Nashville, it’s the Music City Center. One-by-one, the sprawling buildings that usually host auto shows and comic conventions are being transformed into vast health care wards.

So far, the Army Corps has 17 construction contracts to add more than 15,500 beds in several states, but Semonite expects to do much more. Since Mar. 19, the federal agency, which is run by the military and employs an overwhelmingly civilian workforce, has inspected 834 facilities in all 50 states to determine whether the buildings there can be renovated into what the corps calls an “alternate care facility.”

Army Corps officials believe that any future proposals for convention centers and sports stadiums will likely integrate pandemic-planning in its design. The facilities offer scale and efficiency for healthcare providers: doctors and nurses can supervise many patients at once, freeing up other workers to concentrate on the most severe cases at permanent hospitals. Trucks and buses can easily move people and supplies in and out, and the buildings are equipped with massive amounts of electrical power that are necessary to keep a hospital going.

Health officials have seen more favorable U.S. projections for the COVID outbreak in recent days as social distancing practices and other mitigation efforts have slowed the infection rate. But Semonite says he can’t relent on construction. There are too many variables regarding COVID’s spread.

What is certain, however, is that any talk of his own retirement has evaporated. Instead of attending send-offs and cocktail hours with colleagues, Semonite is working 20-hour days and appearing on nightly news programs. And he is fine with that.

“The President and Secretary of Defense will tell me where they want me to go and what they want me to do,” he says. “And when they call, and my phone rings, I will salute and do whatever they tell me. My job is to keep driving on.”

Read the full Time article: https://time.com/collection/coronavirus-heroes/5816877/emergency-hospita...