Politifact article on supposed empty hospitals in the US, dated 3rd April.
Some salient points from the article:
The claim: "Pictures and reports of “empty hospitals” prove COVID-19 spread is “fake crisis for real government planned agendas.”"
The actual situation: "Hospital beds being kept empty to prepare for COVID-19 influx"
"We found some hospitals with significant numbers of empty beds. But that’s due largely to hospitals keeping beds empty as they prepare for an expected influx of patients who have COVID-19 disease.
"Canceled elective procedures and admissions are freeing up bed space to prepare for (the) surge," Dr. James Lawler, an infectious diseases expert and internal medicine professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, told PolitiFact. "In regions where hospitalization rates from COVID are still relatively low, this is resulting in more empty beds — which is good. The surge is coming to them as well."
There is plenty of evidence showing how extensive the outbreak is and is expected to continue to be. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, has estimated between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans could die from the pathogen even as communities adopt stronger social distancing measures.
And an analysis from ProPublica and the Harvard Global Health Institute found that even in a "moderate case" scenario — where 40% of the adult population contracts the disease over the course of a year — the country would need to more than double available hospital beds by freeing up existing beds or adding new ones."
www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/apr/03/facebook-posts/hospital-beds-being-kept-empty-prepare-covid-influ/