Pentagon Stays Cautious on Letting NYC Virus Patients on Ship

(Bloomberg) -- The Defense Department remains cautious about allowing coronavirus patients on the Navy hospital ship anchored in Manhattan but is reassessing that policy daily, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said.

The USNS Comfort is “not an environment built for treating infectious diseases en masse,” Hoffman told reporters Friday.

The Comfort, which docked in New York on Monday, was assigned to add 1,000 beds to the city’s capacity with the intention to take virus-free patients, such as trauma victims, in order to free up space in hospitals. Its companion ship, the USNS Mercy, is aiding hospitals in Los Angeles.

But with only a handful of New Yorkers being treated on the Comfort so far, Hoffman said a streamlined procedure will allow ambulances to take patients directly to the ship, where they would have their temperatures taken and answer a questionnaire to determine how likely they are to be infected with the virus.

The arrival of the Comfort, which was last in New York City in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, is part of a massive effort involving the public and private sectors to quickly reshape the city’s health care system. The main backup to conventional hospitals is the sprawling Jacob Javits Convention Center.

Javits Center

On Friday, the Pentagon announced that the Javits center would begin taking coronavirus patients “in convalescent care, as well as low-acuity patients. These patients, who require a lower level of medical care, must first be screened at a local hospital.”

While the Comfort has become a symbol of help to New York as the city became the U.S. epicenter of the virus pandemic, the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers has emphasized the potential of the Javits Center.

Lieutenant General Todd Semonite told reporters Friday that convention centers are easily adaptable as medical facilities, with extensive utility connections and walls that can be reconfigured to separate different mixes of coronavirus patients and those believed to be virus-free.

The Defense Department also announced it is opening convention center facilities in New Orleans and Dallas to coronavirus patients.

The change in policy for the convention centers came after a request from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

“I asked President Trump this morning to consider the request and the urgency of the matter, and the president has just informed me that he granted New York’s request,” Cuomo said in a statement early Friday. “I thank the president for his cooperation in this pressing matter and his expeditious decision making.”

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