The USNS Comfort arrived in New York on Monday, bringing a massive Navy hospital ship to help relieve city hospitals overwhelmed by coronavirus patients.
The 1,000-bed floating hospital docked Monday at Pier 90 on Manhattan’s West Side, and is set to begin treating patients Tuesday.
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“Our nation has heard our plea for help here in New York City,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said as he greeted the ship at Pier 90. “There could not be a better example of all of America pulling for New York City than the arrival of the USNS Comfort.”
The ship, emblazoned with red crosses on its white hull, will not treat coronavirus patients, but will take on other patients including trauma cases, freeing up beds at local hospitals focused on combating the pandemic. It will have 750 beds ready to treat patients immediately.
The Comfort is staffed by 1,200 medical personnel and equipped with operating rooms, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy, digital radiology, a CAT scan, two oxygen-producing plants and a helicopter deck.
“We needed this boost. We needed this hope,” de Blasio said, calling it a “beacon of hope” to see the ship entering city waters and “coming here to save the lives of New Yorkers in our hour of need.”
At regular hospitals in the city, as many beds as possible will be converted into intensive care units.
The Comfort was last deployed to New York after the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Today, like then, we bring a message to all New Yorkers: Now your Navy has returned, and we are with you, committed in this fight,” said Rear Adm. John Mustin, vice commander of United States Fleet Forces.
The ship departed Saturday from Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia. It was undergoing maintenance when President Donald Trump pledged to deploy it to New York, which was expected to take two weeks but was sped up to eight days.
The Comfort has traveled around the world on U.S. humanitarian missions.
“This ship represents all that is good about the American people,” Mustin said.“Now this great ship will support and serve our fellow Americans in this time of need.”
Source Article from https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/03/30/usns-comfort-arrives-in-new-york-city-1269589
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