US deploys navy hospital ship to NY amid coronavirus

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ANKARA (AA) - U.S. navy hospital ship USNS Comfort will be deployed to New York City harbor to help efforts to combat coronavirus outbreak.

It is confirmed on Wednesday both by U.S. President Donald Trump and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Trump said in a news conference at White House that the Comfort and another hospital ship called Mercy are undergoing maintenance and will be sent upon request.

The Comfort will head to New York, while the Mercy will be deployed a place to be determined on the West Coast.

"We're sending upon request, the two hospital ships - they're being prepared right now, they're massive ships, they're the big white ships with the red cross on the sides, one is called the Mercy and the other is called the Comfort, they are in tiptop shape, they soon will be, getting ready to come up to New York," the president said.

"I spoke with Gov. Cuomo about it, he's excited about it. And I also - we haven't made the final determination of where it's going to go on the West Coast," he noted. "The Comfort is located now in San Diego, and we'll be picking the destination fairly shortly."

Trump stressed that the ships "can be launched over the next week or so depending on need."

The governor also said in a separate news conference on Wednesday that he spoke with Trump and the arrangements will be made to send the hospital ship, calling the step "extraordinary".

"It's literally a floating hospital, which will add capacity," Cuomo said. "And the president said he would dispatch that immediately."

Additionally, he welcomed the decision on Twitter, saying: "Hospital beds are what we need."

"UPDATE: The federal government is sending a hospital ship to New York, the USNS Comfort. The Comfort, which has about 1,000 rooms on it, will be moored in New York Harbor," he tweeted.

The virus emerged in Wuhan, China, last December, and has spread to at least 180 countries and territories around the globe, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

In the U.S., the death toll from novel coronavirus has climbed to 115, with total confirmed cases over 7,300, according to Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. In New York, 16 coronavirus related deaths recorded so far.

WHO has declared the outbreak a pandemic and its data showed there were over 194,000 confirmed cases and nearly 7,900 deaths around the world by Wednesday evening.