U.S. Navy Hospital Ship Will Anchor In New York Harbor

Mar 18, 2020,11:52am EDT

U.S. Navy Hospital Ship Will Anchor In New York Harbor To Treat Coronavirus

Carlie Porterfield Forbes Staff
Business

https://specials-images.forbesimg.co....jpg?fit=scale
The U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort will dock in New York Harbor to help treat victims of the ... [+]

JOE SKIPPER/GETTY IMAGES(Updated: 12:47 p.m. EST, March 18, 2020)


Topline: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday morning that U.S. President Donald Trump has agreed to dispatch a U.S. Navy hospital ship to New York Harbor to help ease crowded city hospitals.

• The USNS Comfort, based in Norfolk, Virginia, is a ship with 1,000 beds and is currently being prepared to sail to New York, Cuomo said.
• Trump said Wednesday that the the Navy was also preparing a second hospital ship, the USNS Mercy, currently docked in San Diego, California, to help treat coronavirus patients, although a destination hasn’t been announced yet.
• According to The Hill, the announcement comes after New York lawmakers called to bring in the ship to help treat more patients— Cuomo said Wednesday that New York needs to increase its hospital bed capacity by 50,000.
• Trump has sent the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to New York to discuss adding hospital capacity, and Cuomo said he plans to meet with them Wednesday afternoon—the city is also working with the Secretary of Defense and FEMA to help address the coronavirus outbreak in New York, he said.
• Cuomo said the city and the federal government are collaborating to set up field hospitals in New York—these mobile hospitals have the capacity to treat between 200 and 250 people at a time.

Key background: The Comfort has previously been dispatched for emergency situations, including to Puerto Rico in 2017 to lend a hand with relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

Tangent: Cuomo also said a “shelter-in-place” order would not be forthcoming for New York City as of Wednesday morning, despite Mayor Bill de Blasio saying he was considering calling for one; the order would have to be approved by Cuomo.

The drastic lockdowns would lead to panic that would be “a bigger problem than the virus,” Cuomo said Wednesday on The New York Times’ The Daily podcast.

This isn’t the first time Cuomo and De Blasio have clashed—how to handle New York’s coronavirus outbreak is their latest disagreement in a long history of sparring.

Crucial quote: “The President and I agreed we’re fighting the same war. This is a war; we’re in the trenches. We’re going to do everything we can do to help the State of New York,” Cuomo said Wednesday.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tru...onavirus-fears

I heard our Naval Hospital Ship was in Italy.

We need to use our ships for the American people, not send it all over the World.

We get left out and left behind all the time! This has got to stop and these countries need to have their OWN Naval Hospital Ships!

OUR Naval Hospital Ships should have been sent out to those returning cruise lines ASAP and treated those people at sea weeks ago instead of letting them dock.

I am sick of this incompetent government.

Passenger ship gears up to host COVID-19 patients in Italy

Large ferry docked in Genoa port being transformed into floating hospital as coronavirus cases spike in Italy.

by Elisa Oddone 12 Mar 2020

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/im...3b97fa8_18.jpg
Cars are parked besides a street in Naples, on the third day of an unprecedented lockdown across Italy imposed to slow the coronavirus outbreak [Ciro de Luca/Reuters]
​
Rome, Italy - A large passenger ship docked in the port of Genoa is currently being transformed into an equipped floating hospital, set to welcome hundreds of coronavirus patients.

The vessel could offer essential services including intensive care and resuscitation units, officials and ship company representatives told Al Jazeera.

After Italy tightened its coronavirus quarantine on Wednesday - ordering bars, restaurants and hairdressing and beauty salons to close - efforts are now being made to take pressure off struggling hospitals.

All over the country, intensive care departments are hosting 1,028 infected patients, while the national capacity is 5,395 beds.

On Thursday, the death toll in Europe's worst-affected country jumped by 189 in 24 hours to 1,016. Confirmed cases across the country rose to 15,113 from a previous 12,462, according to the Civil Protection Agency.

Italian daily Il Secolo XIX reported on Wednesday that a flagship of global cruise operator MSC Cruises was ready to intervene in case of further needs, making up for the lack of places inside hospitals in the country's north.

Giovanni Toti, president of the Liguria region, where Genoa is located, confirmed the undertaking of the measure during a news conference.

"We are studying with Genoa's local health unit, our epidemic task force and specialists … the possibility of arranging a ferry boat or a cruise ship as a unit that could serve patients who are gradually recovering [from COVID-19] and convalescents who leave the hospitals but that are in a situation of fragility, like those living on their own," said Toti.

"If our medical specialists confirm that technical conditions are met, patients will be able to find hospitality on this naval unit where a few hundreds of beds will be put at the disposal of the most fragile categories of people," he added.

Three options

A task force including technicians, engineers and civil protection experts are working on a blueprint to implement the plan. Three options are currently on the table.

Giacomo Giampedrone, council member of Liguria's civil defence, told Al Jazeera the first option would be transforming the ship into a support unit for people in need of spending the two-week compulsory quarantine after having had contacts with infected patients.

The second option would be using the ship as a quarantine location for patients who have tested positive to COVID 19;

the third, whose feasibility is still being evaluated by the National Institution of Health and epidemiologists, aims to use the ferry as a field hospital for patients with full-blown COVID-19 infection.

"We are thinking about the first two options at the moment," Giampedrone said. "This would create 400 bed places. For the third option, we are thinking of using the ship's garage as a field hospital. This weekend will be crucial to understand the feasibility of the whole project."

"If everything goes well, we will be able to organise the ship within 48 hours, meaning we could have places available as of next weekend," Giampedrone said, who is expecting the peak of the infection to be reached in the next few weeks.

Coronavirus fallout: Cruise industry takes a battering (2:20)

But a complete overhaul of the ferry's ventilation system to isolate each cabin and prevent the spread of the virus is crucial.

According to the plan, each room will have a window or a small private terrace in order to get natural air, while work on providing each cabin with its own ventilation system is being carried out

"This is why we shifted from a cruise ship to a ferry boat because the latter gives us this option," Giampedrone said.

"If this works, the model could be replicated. Other regions in Italy are already thinking about this model. They are all waiting for us now."

Public health expert Nino Cartabellotta told Al Jazeera any measure of social and distance and containment are an "optimum" at the moment.
Still, Cartabellotta said he was worried about the adjustments to the ventilation system, which are crucial both for the safety of patients and the medics in order not to repeat the mistake of the Diamond Princess case, in Japan.

A total of 696 people on the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship docked at Yokohama had tested positive for the virus. Seven people who were on the ship have died.

"No modification of the ventilation system was done in that case and passengers should have been disembarked immediately or at least provided with high protection masks."

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/...181804197.html

What about all the shuttered up empty Malls across America?

Governors can tap into this now.

Turn on the power, turn on the heat, send in the National Guard & FEMA to set up beds and equipment if we need this.

We have construction trailers to provide water, showers, and restrooms.

We have FEMA trailers to put in the parking lots for the National Guard and personnel to sleep in.

LIVE UPDATES Over 50% of New Jersey cases are hospitalized

Someone had a great idea on Facebook to get the local media to broadcast:



Let Seniors put a pillow case on their front door or mailbox.


That means they need supplies or food.


No money in the pillowcase.


The Senior puts a card with their name and address, phone number in the pillow case along with the list of supplies they need.


We fill up their pillowcase and deliver it back to them!!!


Perhaps the Church can assist with this program.

Ramada in San Diego to be used as coronavirus quarantine site

The 1,000-Bed Comfort Was Supposed to Aid New York. It Has 20 Patients.

April 2

Just 18 total patients were sent this week to the USNS Mercy ...
www.navytimes.com › news › coronavirus › 2020/04/02 › just-18-pat...

23 hours ago - According to the Mercy's commanding officer Capt. John Rotruck, the hospital ship has treated a total of 15 patients — five of which have been ...