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As COVID-19 Surges in NY, Javits Center Starts Taking Infected Patients
Doctors in New York City's temporary hospital at the Javits Center will now treat coronavirus patients as the number of cases continues to surge, with the military saying Friday that it was considering opening the hospital ship Comfort to coronavirus patients as well.
The Javits Center was originally configured to treat more than 2,500 noncoronavirus patients in order to free up space in the city's hospitals for the massive influx of COVID-19 patients.
But New York Governor Andrew Cuomo asked the president to allow virus patients to be treated at the new site after more coronavirus beds were needed. More than 50,000 coronavirus cases are in New York City alone.
Equipment change
Lieutenant General Todd Semonite, the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers responsible for reconfiguring the Javits Center, told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday that adjustments needed to handle coronavirus patients did not require any "significant mechanical changes," but rather a change in the available medical equipment within the temporary hospital.
He added that the corps first learned that it could adapt massive convention centers for coronavirus patients "about a week ago" when it undertook projects in Detroit and Chicago.
The Army Corps of Engineers has transformed eight facilities across the country into temporary hospitals with 9,693 available beds. Semonite said the vast majority, more than 7,600, were for potential coronavirus patients.
Semonite added that his team had received requests to assess 750 facilities for potential temporary hospitals. When asked about the nation's next critical focus point, Semonite pointed to Florida.
Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said Friday that the military had not yet ruled out opening up the USNS Comfort to treating coronavirus patients in New York, which could put the ship's personnel and other patients at high risk for infection because it is not designed with segregated spaces needed to treat infectious diseases.
Need for deep cleaning of ship
"If we open it up to COVID patients, the likelihood of infection of their doctors goes up. We're aware of that risk and taking that into account. The likelihood of having to empty the ship out at some point and do an extensive deep clean that could take days or longer goes up, and therefore that may reduce our ability to assist," Hoffman said.
The Comfort docked in New York Harbor on Monday and was initially tasked with taking in noncoronavirus patients to free up local beds and medical personnel needed in New York's coronavirus fight.
Meanwhile, the captain of the USS Roosevelt aircraft carrier was cheered and applauded by his sailors as he left the ship Friday.
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday that he had "lost confidence" in Captain Brett Crozier and was replacing him with Rear Admiral-select Carlos Sardiello, the ship's former captain.
"We require commanders with judgment, maturity and leadership composure under pressure to understand the ramifications of their actions within that larger dynamic strategic context," Modly said.
Earlier this week the Roosevelt's captain wrote a letter of concern to his superiors, urging them to take "decisive action" to prevent deaths from the coronavirus. The letter was later leaked to the press.
"We are not at war and therefore cannot allow a single sailor to perish as a result of this pandemic unnecessarily," Crozier wrote in the letter, first obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Hoffman said the military was evacuating about 2,700 of the nearly 5,000 sailors aboard the Roosevelt in an effort to clean the ship after a large COVID-19 outbreak. About 40% of the sailors have been tested so far, with 137 testing positive, he said.
As of early Friday, 1,648 coronavirus cases around the globe were related to the U.S. military — 978 service members, 306 civilians, 256 dependents and 108 contractors — the Pentagon said. There have been six DOD-related COVID-19 deaths, including one service member.
April 04, 2020 at 09:05AM
