New York City’s public hospitals are retraining medical workers as they rush to boost staff to treat patients with the novel coronavirus, according to an email sent to employees at Bellevue Hospital and officials.

The employees are being asked to volunteer to take on more shifts and would be trained and directly supervised by specialists during each shift, which would include triage and assessment of respiratory conditions in patients, triaging patients with respiratory issues, and treating Covid-19 patients, according to the email viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Hospitals have positioned clinicians, including specialists, surgeons and ambulatory care physicians, to be prepared to help with intensive-care unit and emergency room shifts, said a spokesman for NYC Health + Hospitals, which operates the public hospitals and clinics in New York City.

“NYC Health + Hospitals is utilizing all strategies to meet the challenging and ever-changing needs of Covid-19 safely,” said the spokesman, Christopher Miller.

The larger roster of workers is ramping up in all of the acute care facilities at the hospital corporation’s 11 hospitals and 60 additional patient-care sites, an H+H official said. Staff who are credentialed to work anywhere in the system are being redirected where they are most needed, the official said.