DENVER — The state’s emergency management team has begun to deconstruct the field hospital at the Colorado Convention Center.
The event space in downtown Denver will be handed back to the city by March 25, about 11 months after the state transformed it into an overflow site for COVID-19 patients.
“The state’s hospital capacity is expected to meet the healthcare needs of COVID-19 as shown by modeling data and information from hospital partners,” Colorado Emergency Management wrote on Twitter.
Colorado rented the convention center to treat people with milder coronavirus symptoms in the event that ICUs reached capacity and hospitals could not handle the overall demand. Gov. Jared Polis said at the field center’s opening that the state wanted to be prepared but hoped to never need it. None of the 2,000 beds were ever used.
By the time the agreement ends, the state will have leased the convention center for 353 days. At a cost of $60,000 per day, the tab comes to $21.2 million.
Two other field hospitals, one in Loveland and one in Grand Junction, already came down. Two others with smaller patient capacities, in Pueblo and Westminster, will remain operational.
As of Thursday, 712 people in Colorado are currently hospitalized because of COVID-19.
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