NEW YORK (AP) — A Navy hospital ship has arrived in New York Harbor to help relieve the coronavirus crisis gripping New York City's hospitals.
The USNS Comfort has 1,000 beds and 12 operating rooms that could be up and running within 24 hours of its arrival on Monday morning. It also has radiology suites, a CT scanner, ICU beds, a lab and a pharmacy.
President Donald Trump traveled to Norfolk Naval Station to see the ship off on Saturday as he aims to highlight the federal response to the pandemic.
The president said 1,200 Navy medical personnel will be aboard the hospital ship to provide medical care. However, Trump stated the ship will not be used to house COVID-19 positive patients. Instead, it will serve to treat other life-threatening emergencies. Patients with the new coronavirus will continue to be treated at hospitals on land.
Before departing the White House Saturday, Trump told reporters he has spoken with some governors and is considering some type of an enforceable quarantine to prevent people in New York and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut from traveling.
He told reporters at the White House that it would be for a “short period of time, if we do it at all.”
Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and others are criticizing President Trump for suggesting with no clear evidence that thousands of medical masks are disappearing from the city’s hospitals.