- President Donald Trump agreed to send a massive Navy hospital ship to the Port of Los Angeles to deal with the area’s surge of coronavirus patients.
- The USNS Mercy, one of the Navy’s two 1,000-bed hospital ships, should arrive to the Port of Los Angeles next week, which is currently in Seattle.
- The president also approved California’s activation of the National Guard to help with distribution of supplies and other needed relief efforts.
- Trump is also revealing for the first time the number of respirators and other personal protective equipment sent to the hard-hit states by the federal government.
A San Diego-based Navy hospital ship is going to Los Angeles to provide extra support amid the area’s surge of coronavirus patients, President Trump said on March 22, reports Daily Breeze.
U.S. Navy hospital ship
USNS Mercy, one of the Navy’s two 1,000-bed hospital ships, will depart from Naval Station San Diego on March 23, the U.S. Navy said. Over 800 Navy medical personnel and support staff, and more than 70 civil service mariners will be aboard the ship.
“The Department of Defense has been given direction to dispatch it to Los Angeles immediately. DOD has advised Mercy can get into position within a week or less of today’s order,” FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor said.
“The ship will serve as a referral hospital for non-COVID-19 patients currently admitted to shore-based hospitals, and will provide a full spectrum of medical care to include critical and urgent care for adults,” the Navy said.
Dealing with COVID-19 outbreak
Trump also said Sunday that he would approve “very quickly … maybe tonight” California’s request for a major disaster declaration to deal with the worsening COVID-19 outbreak. Similar declarations were approved for New York and Washington state.
The president also approved California’s activation of the National Guard to help with distribution of supplies and other needed relief efforts, but officials stressed that state officials would be in charge.
Los Angeles County saw its largest one-day jump yet in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases Sunday, with 71 more patients and one additional death reported.
The additional support will allow local health professionals to focus on treating COVID-19 patients and for shore-based hospitals to use their Intensive Care Units and ventilators for those patients, according to the Navy.
U.S. disaster relief services
Though Mercy’s primary mission is to provide an acute surgical medical facility to the U.S. military to support expeditionary warfare, its secondary mission is to provide full hospital services to support U.S. disaster relief and humanitarian operations worldwide, the Navy said.
Governor Gavin Newsom had called on the President to send the ship to the Port of Los Angeles. The ship was possibly headed to Seattle prior to the announcement.
“Even though there are more cases right now in Washington, the projected need for beds in California is five times more that of Washington,” Gaynor added.
USNS Comfort
The other ship, USNS Comfort, is based in Norfolk, Virginia, and will be sent to the New York City area.
Before Trump’s announcement, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he and the president had discussed sending the “floating hospital” to New York harbor. Cuomo said the state’s ability to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, which he expects to reach its peak in 45 days, depends on federal help.
Cuomo has said the state may need 37,000 ICU beds and 110,000 hospital beds at the peak of the crisis. That dwarfs the state’s existing capacity: 3,000 ICU beds and 53,000 hospital beds.
The two ships each have about 1,000 rooms and 12 fully-equipped operating rooms, digital radiological services, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy, an optometry lab, a CAT-scan and two oxygen-producing plants, according to the U.S. Navy.
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Source: Daily Breeze
