Manhattan deals with grim reality of COVID-19
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
Refrigerated trailers began
appearing outside hospitals
across Manhattan this
past week — a grim reminder of
the toll coronavirus is taking on
our city.
The trailers are there as
temporary morgues to store the
bodies of those who succumbed
to complications of coronavirus
while hospitalized. Many of these
trailers can be seen outside Bellevue
Hospital; it’s the fi rst time
since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks that such temporary
morgues have been put into use.
As of April 1, nearly 7,000
Manhattan residents have contracted
coronavirus. New York
City, as the epicenter of the epidemic
in America, counts more
than 40,000 patients across the
fi ve boroughs; more than 1,000
of them have died.
Though upwards of 80% of
these patients “self-resolved” at
home and recovered, the remaining
20% of coronavirus patients
BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
Navy hospital ship, the
USNS Comfort, arrived
at New York Harbor
on Monday from Naval Station
Norfolk in Virginia and will begin
treating patients on board by
Tuesday, March 31.
“I had this incredible feeling
of peace that help was fi nally
coming,”said Mayor Bill de Blasio
during a press conference at Pier
90 on Monday. Shortly before the
media briefi ng, de Blasio stood on
a nearby rooftop and watched the
“moving” image of the military
ship pass by the Statue of Liberty
on its way to Pier 88. “It was like
a beacon of hope,” he added.
The hospital ship will act as a
“relief valve” for overburdened
New York City hospitals and treat
non-coronavirus patients, said
Rear Admiral John Mustin. The
ship is equipped with 750 beds,
operating rooms and a pharmacy
and has the potential to increase
its capacity to accommodate
1,000 beds. As similar military
ship, the USNS Mercy, docked in
Los Angeles on Friday.
REUTERS Numerous refrigerated trucks are lined up outside Bellevue Hospital.
wound up being hospitalized —
overwhelming hospitals and their
health care professionals.
Medical centers are beyond
strained. Doctors, nurses and
other hospital staff members
are working around the clock to
treat and save patients, putting
themselves at risk of contracting
the illness in the process. Supplies
“It was like a beacon of hope”: USNS
Comfort arrives at New York Harbor
The hospital ship Comfort passes by the Statue of Liberty this morning to help in the Covid-19 crisis.
The last time the ship hospital
docked in New York City was
during the aftermath of the 9/11
terrorists attacks to provide relief
to fi rst responders.
But more help is still needed.
De Blasio said that the city
will need 60,000 hospital beds
to treat the rapidly growing
are running perilously low, even
though the city’s received donations
of masks, PPE, gloves and
other necessities; Mayor Bill de
Blasio has said the city remains
days away from exhausting its
medical supplies.
But there are some silver linings
in the coronavirus cloud
hanging over the city.
number of coronaviurs patients.
Mayor de Blasio said that the
city will need 60,000 hospital
beds to treat the rapidly growing
number of coronaviurs patients.
Before the pandemic, New York
City had roughly 20,000 hospital
beds. To meet increased demand,
hospitals are now required to
In recent days, temporary
hospitals opened up at the Jacob
Javits Convention Center, fully
staffed by the U.S. military. The
USNS Comfort, a naval hospital,
arrived here Monday, bringing us
more trained medical professionals,
supplies and hospital beds.
The Javits Center and Comfort
aim to take the load off of local
PHOTO BY BRUCE COTLER
up their capacity by 50 percent
which often means that two or
three beds are crammed into a
single room. An additional 2,000
beds for coronavirus patients at
the temporary hospital in Manhattan’s
Javits Center will help
struggling city hospitals when it
opens this week.
hospitals by tending to non-coronavirus
cases.
Restaurants have been delivering
to hard-working health care
workers. Individuals and companies
across the city have shifted
gears and went into the medical
supply business, creating masks
and face shields for doctors and
nurses on the front lines of the
war on coronavirus.
Businesses across the city
continue to suffer the effects of
closure orders that remain active,
but the federal government last
week passed a massive $2 trillion
stimulus package that will open
the door for fi nancial aid. There’s
also relief payments for the unemployed
and working families
included in the spending bill.
Despite the progress made,
it’ll be weeks before the social
distancing mandates end and the
city begins to recover. Medical
experts have told Governor Andrew
Cuomo that the “apex” of
the outbreak remains up to two
weeks away; many more infection
cases are expected.
The Brooklyn Health Center
for Rehab and Healthcare will
provide an extra 600 beds, 350
extra beds are being set up at Roosevelt
Island’s Coler Hospital, 150
extra beds at Westechester Square
Hospital, 120 at North Central
Bronx Hospital, according to
Bloomberg’s hospital bed tracker.
“The toughest weeks are
ahead,” said de Blasio on Monday
before asking the federal government,
again, to send as many
ventilator, N-95 masks, gloves,
gowns, surgical masks and medical
personnel as possible in order
to add to the city’s stockpile.
On Friday, the mayor announced
that 20 trucks were
shipping 10,000 boxes of gloves,
50,000 face shields, 40,000 gowns
and 20,000 N-95 masks and two
million surgical masks along with
800,000 respiratory masks would
arrive to the city over the weekend.
But de Blasio warned that despite
the new shipments, medical supplies
could still run out by April 5.
Schneps Media April 2, 2020 3