'Preparing for an absolute onslaught': CNN reporter offers terrifying glimpse of hospitals treating COVID-19

CNN reporter Miguel Marquez on Monday provided a harrowing glimpse into hospitals that are on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marquez recently went to SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York and got a "sobering" look at the extreme measures the facility is taking to handle the massive influx of COVID-19 patients.

"We've been to two ERs in the last week or so, CNN has, and the reason the administrators and these doctors are letting us in to see this, they want the world, they want the U.S., they want everyone to see how intense this crisis is," Marquez said. "Patient after patient struggling to breathe -- this morning has been brutal."

"Today is pretty intense," SUNY Downstate ER physician Dr. Cynthia Benson told CNN. "We've had a bunch of people die in a very short period of time."

Marquez then said that, as bad as things are now, hospitals are preparing for them to get even worse in the coming days.

"They are preparing for an absolute onslaught," he said.

Watch the full report below.