LINCOLN- CHI St. Elizabeth is preparing for a potential surge of COVID-19 patients by turning its sixth floor into an isolation ward for those with the illness. The floor will have up to 40 beds to house patients with the novel coronavirus who are sick enough to be in the hospital but who don't need to be in intensive care.

"The idea for this unit is to act as a backup plan in the event that we get a lot of COVID-19 patients," said Derek Vance, president of CHI St. Elizabeth and CHI Nebraska Heart.

Vance said the plan was formulated over the past several weeks in consultation with Gov. Pete Ricketts. St. Elizabeth is one of two CHI Health hospitals that will host a short-term unit. The other is CHI Midlands in Papillion.