- US Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort docked on Pier 90 in Manhattan on the morning of March 30 to alleviate the burden that New York City hospitals have been facing amid the coronavirus pandemic.
- The ship houses 1,000 hospital beds, 12 operating rooms, 80 intensive care units, a pharmacy, and a medical laboratory, to name a few features.
- No coronavirus-positive patients will be treated on the ship.
- Its sister ship – the USNS Mercy – docked in Los Angeles on March 27.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
The USNS Comfort – a 1,000-bed Navy Hospital ship – docked in New York City on March 30 to alleviate the burden that New York hospitals have been facing amid the coronavirus pandemic as the state’s COVID-19 death toll nears 1,000.
While New York is now considered the US epicenter of COVID-19, no coronavirus-positive patients will be treated aboard the USNS Comfort. Instead, the ship will serve as a “referral hospital” to free up New York City’s hospital beds, intensive care units, and ventilators as local hospitals are becoming increasingly inundated with COVID-19 patients.
“This is like adding another hospital here in New York City,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on NY1. “It’s such a boost to see the military arrive to help us out.”
Keep scrolling to see the ship as it sails into Pier 90 in Manhattan on March 30:
There have been at least 966 coronavirus-related deaths in New York as of March 29. About 80% of those deaths occurred in New York City.
"New York is the epicenter," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on March 29. "We are going to make it through this. We have made it through far greater things."
Source: Business Insider
The USNS Comfort has provided humanitarian relief and been deployed to war zones around the world since it was first converted from a San Clemente-class super oil tanker to a Navy hospital ship in 1987, according to the US Navy.
Source: US Navy, Business Insider
The USNS Comfort was also deployed to New York waters for three weeks in September 2001 — one day following the 9/11 terror attacks — to house and treat first responders, according to the US Navy.
Source: US Navy
The ship functions as a modern hospital.
USNS Comfort houses 12 operating rooms, a pharmacy, four radiology rooms, an isolation ward …
... an optometry area, a CAT scan, and two "oxygen-producing plants” aboard the ship, according to the US Navy.
Source: US Navy (1), US Navy (2)
There are also 80 intensive care unit (ICU) beds along with the 1,000 patient beds, according to the US Navy.
Source: US Navy
There will be about 1,100 medical staffers aboard the ship, according to the US Navy.
Source: US Navy
The USNS Comfort will begin treating patients within the next 24 hours.
Patients treated on the USNS Comfort will be transferred from local hospitals. Walk-on patients will not be accepted.
