Javits Center and hotels could be used as hospitals
The city may turn hotels and the Javits Center into makeshift hospitals to handle a surge of coronavirus cases in the coming weeks, Mayor de Blasio said Friday.
“We’re going to use every building we can, particularly those near an existing hospital, to become essentially annexes to hospitals,” de Blasio said on CNN. “Javits Center is definitely a possibility, hotels for sure, particularly those near our big hospitals. We’re mobilizing all of them right now.”
The city had 5,683 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of 6 p.m. Friday — with 43 people dying so far.
Earlier Friday, de Blasio said coronavirus cases in the city account for about 30% of all the cases in the U.S. and 70% of those in New York State.
The mayor said the city has enough space to treat an onslaught of coronavirus cases — expected to peak in April — but that hospitals don’t have enough supplies or personnel.
“We do have a lot of space, thank God. We don’t have supplies. And we are going to try and get the personnel we need,” de Blasio said. “But we need all three of those to massively expand our hospital system to deal with the surge that’s coming in April.”
The city and state called on retired doctors, nurses and healthcare workers to increase staffing. As of Thursday night, 1,746 retired or inactive health care professionals signed up, according to de Blasio.
They can sign up nyc.gov/site/helpnownyc.
De Blasio also asked the feds for 15,000 ventilators, 3 million special N95 face masks, 50 million surgical masks and 25 million each of surgical gowns, coveralls, gloves and face masks. The masks are needed for first responders as well as medical personnel, he said.
Earlier Friday, de Blasio said the city already asked for supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile.
“We got a paltry amount,” the mayor said on MSNBC. “We got a lot of expired supplies because they haven’t replenished that stockpile.” at