Workers building field hospital in Detroit center

Military personnel and civilians are working together to quickly transform a convention center in Detroit into a 1,000-bed field hospital in response to the coronavirus.

"They're going to keep their most severe patients in the ICUs in the hospitals. They want to bring COVID patients in here," Lt. Col. Greg Turner with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday.

Turner is helping to oversee the construction project underway at the downtown TCF Center, formerly known as Cobo Center.

"We'll probably do some kind of certification, walkthrough-, punch-list-type stuff. But by the 10th, we should be able to put patients in beds."

The number of COVID-19 cases reported in Michigan reached 9,334 Wednesday, a 22% increase, while deaths rose by 30%, to 337. Hospitals in the southeastern portion of the state have been overwhelmed by cases related to the coronavirus.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. Older adults and people with existing health problems are among those particularly susceptible to more severe illness, including pneumonia.