MESA, Az. — In April Spectrum News 1 spoke to Suzi Frase, a traveling nurse from Lexington working at a Brooklyn hospital during the height of the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak in New York City.

Now Frase has an eight-week contract in a new American hotspot, Arizona. We spoke to Frase on Friday, her first day off since arriving in Mesa last week.

“I’ve been OK. Arizona is about to hit the fan. I started on Monday and we had 90 percent capacity. I left last night and we were 100 percent capacity. As soon as a patient transfers out or dies we have a line of patients in the 'ED' that are waiting for an ICU bed." 

Since work began Frase says she has only seen COVID patients. She says the hospital she's working at has 30 ICU beds. She reports there has been a sufficient amount of PPE's which she says is an improvement from the situation at the hospital in Brooklyn. However, Frase fears if the hospital stays at capacity for a long time PPE supplies will be depleted. Spectrum News 1 asked the RN was there is any difference in the patients she's seeing now compared to two months ago in NYC. 

"These patients are younger! The other day someone died who I think they said was late 20’s. So these patients are a bit younger.” 

Frase expressed frustration with the lasted round of emerging, "hot spots." 

“You know I came voluntarily. I’m more than happy to be here and help because I know that I am needed but I am angry there is a need because we should have, as a country learned from New York. To say, 'Oh no, we don’t want this for our community, we’re going to wear a mask. We’re going to stay home if we can.' But I see willful ignorance. There is a huge population of people that still think this is a hoax. They still don’t believe the numbers. They refuse to wear a mask and they don’t do basic things to keep other people safe," Frase said.

“I would say that masks absolutely help reduce the spread of this virus.”