National Guard officers and local leaders walked the floor of Duke Energy Convention Center on Wednesday afternoon. They imagined rows of hospital beds with patients should the novel coronavirus pandemic overload area hospitals in the coming weeks.

The tour brought the plans a step closer to use the convention center as a makeshift hospital should the need arise.

"We’ve all been to the convention center a million times throughout our lives," said Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley on Wednesday. "Looking at it today and realizing it's going to be converted to a hospital is one of those incredible moments of 'Holy moly, what is happening?' "

Cranley and Hamilton County Board of Commissioners President Denise Driehaus accompanied the National Guard on the tour of the convention center.

If needed, the convention center would not house the patients with the most critical illnesses, Cranley said. Whether they would be coronavirus patients, he said he didn't know.

It's not a done deal.

Nothing was decided Wednesday as many logistical issues are unresolved, said Christa Hyson, spokeswoman for the Health Collaborative, the regional nonprofit coordinating efforts among the 30 hospitals in the region. Officials with the collaborative also toured the Duke Energy Convention Center.

She said many logistical questions still need to be answered, such as how to provide the site with enough power to run it as a hospital for around the clock for weeks, perhaps months.

The National Guard would make the call to convert the convention center into a hospital, Cranley said. The guard would build it; the hospitals would staff it.

Cranley estimated given the current hospitalization rate, the region is at least two weeks away from the possibility of a bed shortage. So there's time to prepare.

"There is a decent, hopeful chance the convention center will not be needed," Cranley said. "We have a couple weeks to get it ready. But there is an equal chance the convention center will be needed. And we have a couple weeks to get it ready."

State and federal money will pay for the conversion of the Duke Energy Convention Center, Cranley said. But just in case, Cincinnati City Council Wednesday approved $11 million to assist should federal money be delayed. The city would be reimbursed by the federal government, he said.

There'd be a minimum of 550 beds at the convention center, Cranley said.

The size of the 750,000-square-foot convention center without exhibits impressed Driehaus. The convention center's website touts its 40,000-square-foot main ballroom as one of the largest in the Midwest.

"I haven't walked in the Duke Energy Center when there hasn't been an exhibit," Driehaus said. "It's huge."

Other locations are also being considered to handle a hospital bed shortage. Cranley said this includes Shriner's Hospital, which is moving its Cincinnati operations to Dayton and planning on selling its 30-bed Burnet Avenue operation. Dorms at Xavier University have also been discussed.

The National Guard will also assess Sharonville Convention Center, Driehaus said. The tour with the National Guard left Driehaus hopeful the region will be as prepared as it can for a surge in the pandemic.

"These guys know what they're doing," Driehaus said. "They've done it before. It gives you a certain confidence we're heading in the right direction."

Enquirer reporter Anne Saker contributed.