The largest Gothic cathedral in the world is being turned into a hospital to help treat those infected with the coronavirus in New York City.
The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in Manhattan announced that it will soon be home to coronavirus patients as New York expands its COVID-19 treatment centers beyond hospital walls. The building’s 600-foot-long nave can fit nine climate-controlled medical tents, which will house as many as 200 patients as they receive treatment.
The cathedral’s crypt will be used as “a staging area” for the medical professionals working in the church. The crypt, which is as large as the nave, is only accessible by several winding staircases, making it unusable for additional patients.
The Rt. Rev. Clifton Daniel III, the dean of the cathedral, told the New York Times that this is the first time the cathedral would be used as a field hospital.
“The last thing like this was the flu pandemic in 1918, but the world was different then, and I don’t think they used the cathedral in this way,” Daniel explained. “But traditionally, in earlier centuries, cathedrals were always used this way, like during the plague. So, this is not outside the experience of being a cathedral. It is just new to us.”
Patients may begin using the cathedral as early as the end of this week. James Patterson, the cathedral’s director of facilities and capital projects, said the final word as to whether the cathedral will be dedicated to coronavirus patients has not been decided by authorities, but he assumed they would be all COVID-19 cases.
“We are assuming that there will be,” Patterson explained. “That’s the way people were talking today.”
Several field hospitals have popped up in New York since the outbreak began in the state. Decisions about which patients would be treated in them have been fluid. The USNS Comfort, a Navy ship treating patients, was originally slated to treat non-COVID-19 patients, but President Trump and Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a reversal of that decision on Monday.
As of Tuesday morning, New York had nearly 132,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and more than 4,700 related deaths.
