Coronavirus News: 1,000 bed Navy hospital ship Comfort treating few patients in NYC

Friday, April 3, 2020

USNS Comfort treating few non-COVID patients

Candace McCowan reports most of the 1,000 beds are empty

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- The 1,000 beds on the USNS comfort are nearly all empty with the ship unable to take much of the load off city hospitals.

The ship is not treating COVID-19 patients and only has 20 patients.

The reason: there are strict requirements for patients needing to board the ship including a trip to a traditional hospital, diagnosis, a coronavirus test and then an application must be submitted before patients can be treated on the naval hospital ship.

its fair to say the masks couldnt hurt unless they gave you a false sense of security. when a doctor talks about a mask, they are talking about a form fitting mask that goes around your nose, that doesnt allow any other air to come in, thats really what a mask is. to ask a doctor, does a bandana help. i said to the doctor inside, i'll just get the bandanas i wear when i ride my motorcycle. not going to happen. this is what the doctor thinks of as a mask. but could it hurt, might it help, i think its fair to say yes. but dont get a false sense of security that now you dont have to social distance and you dont have to take the normal precautions because you are wearing a bandana

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the Comfort is intended for non-COVID people, but he wants to speak to the defense secretary about a possible change.

"The Navy's position is they don't want to put COVID people on the ship because it would be too hard to disinfect the ship afterwards. That's my rough interpretation of what they're saying," Cuomo said. "I know they're not taking COVID-positive patients. But they said that from day one, in fairness. Now, I don't know the science of ship disinfecting to know whether or not they're being overly dramatic, so I take their word for it."

Meanwhile at Javits Center, the 2,500 bed military hospital was also designed to take overflow from the city's overwhelmed hospital system by treating those without COVID-19, but the limited hospital capacity for those with coronavirus had Governor Cuomo asking the president to change course.

President Trump agreed. Now the Javits Center will accept patients with the virus.

One side note: Patriots owner Robert Kraft purchased more than a million n95 masks and 300-thousand were delivered to the Javits Center on Friday.