The hospital ship USNS Comfort arrived in New York to expand the city's response capacity to the coronavirus

A Navy hospital ship arrived in New York City on Monday to expand the health capacity of the homonymous state, the most overwhelmed by the coronavirus crisis in the United States.

The ship USNS Comfort, which was also dispatched to New York after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, will be used to treat patients who do not have the coronavirus, in order to relieve the burden on the hospitals that are taking care of the who suffer from that disease

The ship comes as the death toll from coronavirus in New York state surpassed 1,000 on Sunday, less than a month after the state’s first case was reported. Most of the deaths have occurred in recent days. In his press conference Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo reported that 1,218 people have died and more than 9,500 are hospitalized as a result of the disease.

Governor Andrew Cuomo received the boat and said it will help mitigate the situation for city hospitals, overwhelmed by the number of patients who have contracted the disease. In addition to the 1,000 beds, the Comfort has 12 operating rooms that could be up and running within 24 hours.

New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus in the United States, reported Monday that the death toll there is 790. In addition, it has 36,221 of the total confirmed cases in the state, according to statistics provided in real time by Johns University Hopkins.

The crew of the USNS Comfort with the Statue of Liberty in the background

The mammoth ship has passed by the emblematic Statue of Liberty accompanied by several boats and helicopters and under the watchful eye of a few dozen witnesses who were in the place, respecting the social distancing regulations

New York City is also due to open an emergency hospital Monday at the Javits Center conference center.

The imposing entrance of the ship

Four other sites across the city have been approved to provide health care and also help decongest hospitals and provide answers to people with other afflictions.

The ship will not treat those infected with Covid-19, but will take care of patients with other types of pathologies and thus free up city resources for those affected by the new disease

The ship, at the height of 42nd Street in Manhattan

Mayor Bill de Blasio greeted the arrival of the boat, scheduled for March 18. “The fact that the navy is here, that the army is here to help New York at a time when our city needs it, is very important,” de Blasio told CNN, as the ship entered the port of Manhattan