The USNS Comfort will pull up anchor by the end of the month after spending more than three weeks in New York City’s harbor with the majority of its hospital beds empty during the coronavirus pandemic, Pentagon officials confirmed Friday.
The Navy’s East Coast-based hospital ship is expected to return to its home port in Norfolk, Va., where its medical supplies will be refilled and it will be prepared for another mission, officials said.
“This is a sure sign of modest progress in mitigating the virus in the nation’s hardest-hit city,” Pentagon chief spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters. “It’s a welcome sign.”
The USNS Comfort, with its 1,000 beds and 12 operating rooms, was initially intended to only treat non-coronavirus-related patients, acting as a relief valve for the city’s overloaded hospital system so it could focus on the outbreak. The mission was eventually changed, allowing COVID-19-positive patients to be cared for by the ship’s medical personnel.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will decide any follow-on locations for the Navy hospital ship.
“They are the ones who will task us with where they believe a 1,000-bed hospital ship with more than 1,000 medical providers is most needed,” Mr. Hoffman said.
He did not have information about the status of the USNS Mercy, its West Coast-based sister ship now docked in Los Angeles.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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