As virus spreads, growing need for hospital beds, supplies

Posted: Mar 22, 2020 / 04:32 AM MDT / Updated: Mar 22, 2020 / 11:58 AM MDT

A nurse at a drive up COVID-19 coronavirus testing station set up by the University of Washington Medical Center exits a tent while holding a bag containing a swab used to take a sample from the nose of a person in their car, Friday, March 13, 2020, in Seattle. UW Medicine is conducting drive-thru testing in a hospital parking garage and has screened hundreds of staff members, faculty and trainees for the COVID-19 coronavirus. U.S. hospitals are setting up triage tents, calling doctors out of retirement, guarding their supplies of face masks and making plans to cancel elective surgery as they brace for an expected onslaught of coronavirus patients. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The coronavirus pandemic notched another grim advance on Saturday.

Italy announced nearly 800 new deaths and 6,600 new cases.

In New York, coronavirus cases soared above 10,000 as state officials scoured the globe for desperately needed medical supplies such as respirators and masks.

Health care systems around the world were feeling strained, and rural areas also began to feel the virus closing in.

One doctor at a hospital in Georgia says people are scared, and hospitals are worried they won’t have supplies to keep up with an expected influx of sick patients.

The global death toll stands at 13,000.