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Samaritan's Purse Sets Up COVID Field Hospital For Western NC

88.5 WFDD - Public Radio For The Piedmont | By Paul Garber
Published January 4, 2021 at 11:14 AM EST
In this May 7, 2020, photo, the Rev. Franklin Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan's Purse, sits for a portrait at his group's field hospital in New York's Central Park. The Christian relief charity is setting up a new field hospital in Lenoir. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

A High Country-based humanitarian group is building a field hospital to assist COVID-19 patients in western North Carolina.

The 30-bed hospital will be located in Lenoir and is expected to begin treating patients this week.

Officials with Samaritan's Purse, which is run by Rev. Franklin Graham and is based in Boone, say it's being built on the grounds of Caldwell UNC Health Care.

Hospital leaders say COVID cases have spiked in the region. 

The temporary facility will be used to treat patients from five health systems. In addition to Caldwell UNC, they are Appalachian Regional Healthcare System in Boone, Carolinas Healthcare System Blue Ridge in Morganton and Catawba Valley Health System and Frye Regional Medical Center, which are both in Hickory.

For the most up-to-date information on coronavirus in North Carolina, visit our Live Updates blog here. WFDD wants to hear your stories — connect with us and let us know what you're experiencing.
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Health & Safety CoronavirusNCSamaritan's PurseRev. Franklin GrahamBoone
Paul Garber
Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.
See stories by Paul Garber

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