30 March 2020: Hospital Ship Arrives in New York City

USNS Comfort arrives in New York City

The U.S. Navy's Comfort hospital ship arrived in New York City, just as its status as the national epicenter of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic was established.

The ship, emblazoned with red crosses on its white hull, will not treat coronavirus patients, but will take on other patients including trauma cases, freeing up beds at local hospitals focused on combating the pandemic. It will have 750 beds ready to treat patients immediately.

The Comfort is staffed by 1,200 medical personnel and equipped with operating rooms, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy, digital radiology, a CAT scan, two oxygen-producing plants and a helicopter deck.

“We needed this boost. We needed this hope,” de Blasio said, calling it a “beacon of hope” to see the ship entering city waters and “coming here to save the lives of New Yorkers in our hour of need.”

Like the 2,500 bed Javits Center temporary field hospital, only a small fraction of its available capacity was used before Governor Cuomo acknowledged the ship would no longer be needed on 21 April 2020.