A Navy hospital ship with 1,000 beds arrived Monday in New York City as the number of deaths in the state from the outbreak climbed quickly. Mayor Bill de Blasio said President Donald Trump's suggestion that thousands of medical masks are disappearing from New York City hospitals is insulting to front-line medical workers.
The number of reported coronavirus deaths in New York shot up by 253 in a single day to just over 1,200, a number Gov. Andrew Cuomo called "staggering." "That's a lot of loss, that's a lot of pain, that's a lot of tears, that's a lot of grief that people all across this state are feeling," the governor said at a briefing in Manhattan.
Cuomo sounded the mournful note even as a Navy hospital ship with 1,000 beds arrived in New York City. State officials expect the number of deaths to continue to rise as the outbreak reaches its projected peak in the coming weeks. "Whatever the numbers are, it's going to be staggering," Cuomo said. We've lost over 1,000 New Yorkers."
The state has already confirmed more than 66,000 cases, mostly in New York City. There are 9,500 people in New York currently hospitalized for COVID-19. A Navy hospital ship with 1,000 beds arrived Monday morning in New York City to help relieve the coronavirus crisis gripping the city's hospitals. The USNS Comfort, which was sent to New York City after 9/11, will be used to treat non-coronavirus patients while hospitals treat people with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters the ship will relieve stress on city hospitals as the massive white vessel pulled into a cruise ship terminal off Manhattan. In addition to the 1,000 beds, the Comfort has 12 operating rooms that could be up and running within 24 hours.
The ship's arrival comes as New York state's death toll from the coronavirus outbreak climbed Sunday above 1,000, less than a month after the first known infection in the state.
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Most of those deaths have occurred in just the past few days. New York City, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, reported Sunday that its toll had risen to 776. The total number of statewide deaths isn't expected to be released until Monday, but with at least 250 additional deaths recorded outside the city as of Sunday morning, the state's total fatalities was at least 1,026.
Two more New York City health care workers have died of the coronavirus, days after the first confirmed death.
