Every room in the south pavilion of the 20-bed progressive care unit was full. Half of the beds were occupied with coronavirus patients. The other half were filled with people who’d had heart attacks or strokes or other conditions that led them to seek hospital care.

“It’s very stressful,” said Hassan Beydoun, a registered nurse and assistant manager of the unit, which is filled with patients who aren’t quite sick enough to need intensive care, but who need more attention than those in general care units. “It’s scary, to be honest with you, because I don’t feel like people know what’s going on exactly in the hospitals. And I feel like some people just don’t care, you know?”

“Yesterday, I was driving with my wife and we looked at one of the gyms and the parking lot was full. And I’m like, come on. People don’t take it serious. And that’s why I tell patients, ‘Please, if you can talk about your experience on Facebook, tell it to your family members and friends so they can see it how it is’ … because people don’t hear the stories.”