As we get closer to what state governments believe will be the peak of the coronavirus outbreak, are local hospitals prepared for the numbers of infected patients?
21 News reached out to valley hospital administrators to find out.

All of the local hospital spokespeople we talked to say they've been preparing for this epidemic for a while and they have plans in place.

While Mercy Health says they won't release specifics on staffing or supplies they did say they planned early and they continue to monitor their usage of PPE's and ventilators.

A doctor at UPMC says their hospitals are well equipped with supplies and they can move patients around in their 40-hospital network if needed.

"We are in a favorable geographic area as far as hospital beds, hospital systems the availability of ICU compared to our population so I think that puts us in a favorable situation but there always has to be a plan for a what if and those are always in place," said Dr. Elizabeth Ann Piccione of UPMC.

A spokesperson for Steward Health Care, which operates Sharon and Trumbull Regional medical centers, says they acquired specialty equipment required to treat COVID-19 patients including ventilators and personal protective equipment months ago. They say their resources remains centralized, ready to be deployed or redeployed across different regions if and when they are needed.