As the novel coronavirus continues to spread, the US Navy is sending its two hospital ships into action. The USNS Comfort, stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, will head for New York City, President Trump said in a Wednesday morning press conference. The USNS Mercy, at home in San Diego, will make its way to a to-be-determined city on the West Coast. Both started life as oil tankers before the Navy turned them into floating hospitals in the 1980s, and now each offers space for 1,000 patients and a crew of nearly 1,300 (a mix of Navy personnel and civilian doctors and nurses.)
Don’t expect the ships, painted white and marked with red crosses, to appear offshore and start taking on Covid-19 cases. For one thing, both are currently undergoing scheduled maintenance that the Navy is now expediting. The Navy didn’t provide timing for the Mercy, but a spokesperson said the Comfort should be ready to go the first week of April. For another, the Navy doesn’t intend to bring aboard anyone infected with coronavirus. The ships will instead be used to treat non-Covid patients, a Navy public affairs officer says. They’ll take on the folks who’ve suffered heart attacks, strokes, and broken legs so land-based hospitals can focus on the pandemic.
The Mercy and Comfort offer 12 operating rooms, two oxygen producing plants, an optometry lab, a pharmacy, and more. But space on the ships is much too tight to safely house coronavirus patients.
Photograph: Nicolo