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NEW ORLEANS – The Morial Convention Center is becoming a temporary medical center to help ease the burden on hospitals during the COVID-19 crisis.

The first photographs of what it looks like were tweeted by Mayor Cantrell last night.

The goal is to have 1,000 medical beds in place, ready for patients by Sunday, April 5.

The beds would be used by patients who don’t need to be in ICU, but aren’t well enough to recover at home.

If local hospitals run out of room, they will send patients here by ambulance only, and doctors and nurses are on standby to treat them.

Governor John Bel Edwards and Mayor LaToya Cantrell toured the facility on March 29.