President Trump and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo agreed to change course and use the USNS Comfort to treat coronavirus patients.
Cuomo announced on Monday afternoon that the ship would no longer be used for patients that have non-COVID-19 ailments and would be switching to providing care exclusively for coronavirus patients.
“I spoke to the president and he has agreed to our request to treat #COVID patients on the USNS Comfort,” Cuomo tweeted. “This means 1,000 additional beds staffed by federal personnel. This will provide much-needed relief to our over stressed hospital systems.”
#BREAKING: I spoke to the president and he has agreed to our request to treat #COVID patients on the USNS Comfort.
This means 1,000 additional beds staffed by federal personnel.
This will provide much-needed relief to our over stressed hospital systems.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 6, 2020
Trump also addressed the situation during a press conference on Monday evening. He said, “[Cuomo] asked whether or not it would be possible to use the ship with respect to fighting the virus, and we hadn’t had that in mind at all, but we’re going to let him do it, and we’re also going to let New Jersey — Gov. Murphy, we spoke with him a little while ago, and New Jersey is going to use it also.”
Many had questioned why the ship wasn’t being used for coronavirus patients after only a handful of non-COVID-19 patients were being cared for aboard the vessel. As of Monday, New York had more than 130,000 coronavirus cases with more than 4,700 related deaths. New Jersey had more than 3,700 confirmed cases with more than 900 related deaths.
