MONTREAL -- COVID-19 patients who need to be hospitalized will now be treated at the Montreal General Hospital and the adults’ section of the Glen Site of the Montreal University Health Centre.

The new plan, announced Friday by MUHC president and executive director Dr. Pierre Gfeller, is part of Phase 3 of the COVID-19 Provincial Contingency Plan for hospital centres.

The MUHC will be able to open 156 intensive care beds and several hundred more beds if necessary. It also has 3,000 nurses, 11,000 employees and 1,500 physicians at the ready.

Quebec’s Health Ministry designated the site, allowing the MUHC to accept the transfer of patients with COVID-19 from other institutions where patients have been treated so far.