Preparations are underway to surge hospital beds for civilian use with Navy hospital ships on the east and west coasts and the Defense Health Agency’s network of 51 hospitals, the chief medical personnel from the respective divisions told Pentagon reporters via video conference Thursday.
“We are preparing the ship for its 1,000-bed mission, which is the largest mission set that it is designed for,” said Navy Surgeon General Rear Adm. Bruce Gillingham. “This is not our traditional medical mission, which typically involves combat casualty care.”
Gillingham described the hospital ship preparations after Defense Secretary Mark Esper met with President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence and gave the go-ahead for the Navy’s two hospital ships, USNS Mercy in San Diego and USNS Comfort in Norfolk, to deploy for civilian use.
The hospital ship USNS Mercy is being readied in the port of San Diego with a goal to set sail next week to an undisclosed west coast location where it will be used to ease the burden on local hospitals by taking on trauma patients in order to free up bed space for potential COVID-19 patients.
On the east coast, the USNS Comfort is several weeks further behind due to scheduled maintenance, but its mission has been defined as supporting COVID-19 cases in New York.
Defense Health Agency Director Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Place said his 51-hospital network designed to cater to 9.5 million beneficiaries is preparing to assist civilians.
“Care in these facilities or our beneficiaries is being significantly affected,” he said, noting the network is beginning to shift resources, such as evaluating how to surge bed space and advising patients on how to self-screen.
“We’re not just turning around numbers and jargons,” he said, noting that calls to the nurse hotline have increased 500% to 8,000 to 10,000 per day.
The Defense Health Agency also confirmed that 15 Department of Defense labs are now up and running with the capability to do tens of thousands of tests at a time. At present, the defense labs have not been asked to review civilian tests.
Over the weekend, the Navy reported two positive tests of sailors on the west coast. On Thursday, the Navy confirmed positive COVID-19 test results for a recruiting staff member in Dallas and a civilian in Norfolk. All are reportedly in self-quarantine at home.
To prevent sailors from spreading the disease, the Navy said all personnel are screened before they cross the bow of the ship. Those exhibiting symptoms while at sea are isolated from others.
As of 5 a.m. on Thursday, the DOD reported 51 active-duty cases but did not break them down by service.
The Navy confirmed it can perform COVID-19 tests aboard ships but has no FDA-approved way to evaluate the results, requiring the test to be transferred to a laboratory on land first.
Responding to a question about European data indicating that younger people are suffering from the virus at an increased rate than previously thought, Place said the young, healthy military population did leave the Pentagon to lower preventative measures.
“We never made the assumption that we would lower the threshold for screening based on age,” he said.
Place also confirmed “a handful” of less than 10 positive cases at Walter Reed Hospital, where some 250 tests have been administered.
