The USNS Comfort, a U.S. Navy ship, will be deployed to New York harbor to serve as a 1,000-bed hospital ship that will be used to treat coronavirus patients.
The ship, due to arrive in April, will also have 12 fully-equipped operating rooms and increase New York’s hospital surge capacity.
“We are fighting a war against this pandemic and we know that two of the most effective ways to stop it is by reducing density and increasing our hospital capacity so our healthcare system is not overwhelmed,” New York Gov. Andrew Governor Cuomo said. “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. Partnering with the private sector to require nonessential employees to work from home will also go a long way toward bending the curve. My number one priority is protecting the public health so that a wave of new cases doesn’t crash our hospital system, and we will continue taking any action necessary to achieve that goal.”
Cuomo is also meeting with Army Corp of Engineers leadership to discuss ways to further increase hospital capacity in New York.
Also, the governor will issue an executive order directing non-essential businesses to implement work-from-home policies effective Friday, March 20.
Cuomo said that businesses that rely on in-office personnel must decrease their in-office workforce by 50 percent. Essential service industries, including shipping, media, warehousing, grocery and food production, pharmacies, healthcare providers, utilities, banks, and related financial institutions, and other industries critical to the supply chain, are exempt from this order.
As of March 19, there were 2,382 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in New York State. More than half of the cases, 1,339, are in New York City. Another 538 cases are in Westchester County.
Cuomo, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced a regional approach to combating COVID-19 throughout the tri-state area. The uniform standards limit crowd capacity for social and recreational gatherings to 50 people and require restaurants and bars to close on premise service and move to take-out and delivery services only. They also temporarily closed movie theaters, gyms, and casinos.