Several field hospitals in New York that went unused or barely used are set to shut down over the next few days.

NEW YORK — Gleaming new tent hospitals sit empty on two suburban New York college campuses, never having treated a single coronavirus patient. And a Navy hospital ship that offered help in Manhattan is soon to depart.

When virus infections slowed down or fell short of worst-case predictions, cities were left with dozens of barely used or unused field hospitals.

Many of the facilities will now be kept on standby for a possible second wave of infections. Some could even be repurposed as testing sites or recovery centers.

In New York, the hardest-hit state in the U.S. with nearly 300,000 cases and more than 18,000 deaths, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has used the mantra “plan for the worst, hope for the best” to defend his push for field hospitals that have, so far, gone largely unused.

Looking at projections in midMarch that the state would need to double hospital capacity to 110,000 beds by the end of April, Cuomo asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build at least four field hospitals and the Navy to deploy the Navy’s Comfort hospital ship to Manhattan.

With the number of hospitalizations cresting far below forecasts, just one of the Army Corpsbuilt temporary facilities opened, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. It will close Friday after treating little more than 1,000.

The three other hospitals that Cuomo requested were completed and mothballed for possible future use, including ones on college campuses. Plans for four other hospitals were scrapped, and the Comfort is set to leave Thursday.