Part of Glen Mills medical shelter in Delaware County is heading to East Stroudsburg

GLEN MILLS, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Part of the equipment from the regional medical facility set up at Glen Mills Schools in Delaware County will be headed to East Stroudsburg in the Lehigh Valley.

Late last month, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency established the alternative care site at Glen Mills Schools to serve as a regional medical facility for patients who had not tested positive for COVID-19, but required treatment if local hospitals were at capacity with coronavirus patients.

Members of the National Guard began packing up part of the medical shelter Tuesday morning.

One-hundred beds will remain in the town of Glen Mills should the county need them.

"However many beds they need and for however long they want to be here, we are in support of that," emphasized Christopher Spriggs, Acting Executive Director of Glen Mills Schools.

According to Delaware County Director of Emergency Services, Timothy Boyce, "The cache has beds, cleaning stations, nurses stations, lighting- it has everything you think you would need for, again, a low acuity shelter."

When you walk into the school's recreational center, you can see hospital beds placed across the floor, including a section for pediatrics, should the need arise.

Boyce explained equipment is now needed in East Stroudsburg.

"A lot of people from North Jersey and New York may have come back there. It's a little bit more rural, and they just don't have the hospital space," Boyce said.

The Glen Mills shelter was built for more than 250 people, but health officials haven't needed to use it yet.

"Here in our region, we've identified literally hundreds of new beds- ICU beds. Our goal has always been to reinforce our hospitals first and use the shelter as a backup," Boyce said.