—New York post photo

Washington: Beds, ventilators and masks soon could all be in short supply in US hospitals rocked by the novel coronavirus, with doctors worrying they may have to start choosing which patients to treat.

"You have seen empty shelves in grocery stores," and the stress created by the lack of toilet paper, said Thomas Tsai, a surgeon and assistant professor at Harvard's School of Public Health.

"Imagine that same panic if hospitals became empty of protecting gears for physicians, and ventilators. That's the mental image I think about" if the crisis deepens, the hospital doctor told AFP.

"A lot depends on what will happen in the next few days, in the next few weeks."

There are 4,200 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the official name for the virus, in the United States, and 73 deaths, numbers which no doubt are far from their peak.

But the leading global economic power has only one million hospital beds, which works out to 2.8 beds per 1,000 inhabitants -- far less than other countries that have been severely affected by the pandemic (12.3 beds in South Korea, 4.3 in China, 3.2 in Italy), according to numbers from the OECD.

As for intensive care unit (ICU) beds, there are fewer than 100,000 beds, the vast majority of which are already occupied, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA).

The Health Department estimated that the US would need at least 200,000 ICU beds for a moderate crisis and up to 2.9 million for an acute one, since about five percent of COVID-19 patients require intensive care hospitalization.

—AFP