NAVY HOSPITAL SHIP DOCKS IN NEW YORK CITY
1,000-bed vessel to take pressure off city’s facilities
NEW YORK • In a hopeful image that captured the spirit of a national mobilization against the coronavirus, a U.S. navy hospital ship docked in New York on Monday as the city pleaded for more help to stanch the deadly outbreak at its U.S. epicentre.
Painted a gleaming white and adorned with giant red crosses, the 1,000-bed USNS Comfort sailed up the Hudson River, before docking at a midtown Manhattan pier.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo, a prominent public figure in the battle to stop the coronavirus outbreak, were among the dignitaries on the dock when the converted oil tanker arrived.
The Comfort will treat non-coronavirus patients, including those who require surgery and critical care, the navy said.
“It’s a wartime atmosphere and we all have to pull together,” de Blasio said.
Hospitals in the city have been overrun with patients suffering from COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus. New York state accounts for almost half of the country’s more than 144,000 cases and more than a third of its more than 2,500 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.
The United States has the most cases in the world.
To ease the pressure, construction of a 68-bed field hospital began on Sunday in Central Park, and is expected to be ready to accept patients on Tuesday.
De Blasio, among a growing chorus of officials who have voiced frustration at the Trump administration’s handling of the crisis, said the death toll in his city would rise soon if Washington did not provide more medical supplies and assistance. “Sunday is D-day, we need help by Sunday,” he told CNN on Monday.
U.S. health officials are urging Americans to follow stay-at-home orders and other measures to contain the spread of the virus, which originated in China and has infected about three-quarters of a million people around the world.
“If we do things together well — almost perfectly — we could get in the range of 100,000 to 200,000 fatalities,” Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House’s coronavirus task force, told NBC’S Today show.
The New York Times reported earlier that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projected that 200,000 to 1.7 million people could die and between 160 million and 214 million people could be infected in that country.
President Donald Trump, who initially played down the risk of the outbreak, on Friday signed a $2.8-trillion package of emergency measures.
Trump also has extended his original 15-day nationwide stay-at-home order for another 30 days.