(Bloomberg) --
Scotland's government is planning to convert its national exhibition and conference center into a temporary hospital as demand for medical care accelerates and the number of coronavirus-related fatalities rises.
The Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow will be converted into a hospital with an initial 300 beds though that could be increased to as many as 1,000 depending on how the outbreak develops, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told reporters in Edinburgh on Monday.
The government is also postponing some non-urgent operations and screening processes to free-up capacity to deal with the outbreak, Sturgeon said.
The announcement came as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Scotland rose by 179 to 1,563 and the number of fatalities climbed by six to 47.
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