27 March 2020: Temporary Field Hospital Opens in New York City

Inside the 1,000-bed temporary hospital at the Javits Center

New York City's Javits Center was converted into a temporary field hospital facility, with the first 1,000 beds becoming available on 27 March 2020, and another 1,500 beds planned to become available on 1 April 2020.

Nearly two months later, the facility was shut down, having only used a tiny fraction of its available capacity during New York's first wave of coronavirus infections during the pandemic. Had the facility been used to accommodate the COVID-19 patients discharged from New York hospitals to free up their bed space, much of the additional infections that took place among the residents of New York's nursing homes and assisted living facilties may have been avoided.