KITCHENER -- Waterloo Region's three hospitals are working on new plans to open up hundreds of patient spaces in case they're needed during the pandemic.

The hospitals have identified a total of more than 400 new spaces that could be put into operation during the pandemic.

"This is going to be a marathon, it's not a short term type of event,” said Ron Gagnon, CEO of Grand River Hospital.

The head of Grand River Hospital says they're increasing the number of ICU beds on a daily basis.

“We're also working very actively within people in the community to identify spaces outside of hospital where people that might be an alternate level of care or who might be better cared for out in the community would be able to go,” he said.

Cambridge Memorial Hospital is also looking at putting beds into an empty wing in the B tower.

The CEO’s of all three hospitals on the Mike Farwell Show on Rogers TV on Wednesday addressing the plan.

“We're talking with hotel owners, we’re talking with, in the worst case scenario, large facilities where we could get a fair amount of equipment and staff to deal with what I’ll call a super surge as opposed to the surge we expect to see,” explained Gagnon.

Officials adding it's also possible the region's hospitals could take in patients from other jurisdictions if there is a so-called "super surge" of cases.