(Radio Iowa) — A few other states have announced hotels and convention centers are being converted into triage centers to deal with COVID-19 patients — and a top public health administrator in Iowa says discussions are underway here to determine how to manage patient flow. Sarah Reistter is deputy director of the Iowa Department of Public Health.

Reisetter says patients from rural counties with complex health conditions are routinely transferred to hospitals in some of the state’s larger metros and that’s likely to be the case with COVID-19 patients.

Governor Kim Reynolds says she is meeting regularly with the leaders of the state’s major hospitals as well as with representatives of the Iowa Hospital Association. Reynolds says each has a “surge capacity plan.”

Governor Reynolds and the public health department’s deputy spoke over the noon-hour during a news conference broadcast on Radio Iowa stations.