Floating Hospital To Bring 1,000 Beds To NY Harbor

NEW YORK CITY — A floating hospital is on its way to New York Harbor, bringing with it 1,000 beds to help ease medical centers expected to soon become overwhelmed by cases of the new coronavirus.

The USNS Comfort will be dispatched by the federal government as soon as maintenance checks and staffing is complete and will moor in the city soon, Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Navy said.

"Hospital beds are what we need," he said. The ship also has 12 operating rooms.

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"The deployment of the USNS Comfort to New York is an extraordinary but necessary step to help ensure our state has the capacity to handle an influx of patients with COVID-19 and continue our efforts to contain the virus," Cuomo said.

New York City has nearly 1,000 cases of coronavirus and 10 people have died, according to figures updated Wednesday.

As of March 17, 264 people were hospitalized in the state. The expected peak is in about 45 days and the state will need between 55,000 and 110,000 hospital beds, Cuomo said.

NYC Hospitals Lack Beds For Expected Coronavirus Cases

"There is a curve," Cuomo said. "I've said that curve is going to turn into a wave and the wave is going to crash on the hospital system."

The state needs between 18,000 and 37,000 ICU beds, equipped with ventilators which are proving difficult to procure, he said.

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