In a race against time to face the peak of the epidemic, New York welcomed the arrival of a 1,000-bed military hospital ship on Monday. The USNS Comfort, with a capacity of 12 operating theaters, departed from Virginia on Saturday, arrived around 3:30 p.m. KST. It should make it possible to unload New York hospitals of patients requiring intensive care not linked to the coronavirus.
«The fact that the Navy is there, that the Army is there to help New York at a time when our city is in need, it is very importantNew York Mayor Bill de Blasio said as the boat entered Manhattan Harbor, several dozen people watching on the wharf and others from their windows. “For the people of the city who have been through a lot in recent weeks, it lifts their spirits. It’s very emotional for all of us, we need help“, Added the mayor on the CNN channel.
The expected peak
While New York City, epicenter of the epidemic in the United States, now has more than 33,000 cases and 776 deaths, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University, an emergency hospital set up in the conference center the Javits Center was also due to become operational on Monday, with a capacity of 2,900 beds. Four other sites across the city have been identified to unload hospitals, overwhelmed in recent days by the influx of patients. “The virus has been ahead of us since day oneGovernor Andrew Cuomo said on MSNBC on Monday. “We are still two, three, four weeks away (from the peak of the epidemic), depending on the projection model used. You have to prepare for the peak, have the material for the peak. ‘Cause that’s where the system will fall apart».
Bill de Blasio stressed that the city still needed urgently, just to hold the week, some 400 artificial respirators and reinforcements of medical personnel. “I asked the president, the federal government to provide us with these 400 (respirators) immediately so that we can last until Sunday“, he added. “One in four American cases is here, we warned them, they had the time, now they have to find them».
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