Earlier this spring, even as hospital workers received new guidance for personal protective equipment and learned to strip off their work clothes before entering their homes, Dr. Patil Armenian, an emergency physician at Community Regional Medical Center and UCSF Fresno, told KVPR that the experience felt like “the calm before the storm.”

Four months later, as hospitals across the Valley and California approach their capacities, Dr. Armenian says the ER is becoming more and more crowded—and that COVID-19 isn’t going to disappear anytime soon. In this interview, she discusses new changes to CRMC’s ER, including an outdoor screening tent and iPads for video chatting with patients, as well as why more people are coming to the emergency rooms for reasons other than COVID-19.