President Donald Trump says that cruise ships may soon be used as floating hospitals to help alleviate a shortage of beds in traditional medical centers bracing for an influx of coronavirus patients.
At a press conference Thursday, Trump said he’d spoken to the chairman of Carnival Cruise Lines about its fleet potentially helping with the government’s coronavirus response.
‘One of the things that happened this morning, I spoke with Micky Arison at Carnival Cruise Lines, and he’s going to make ships available,’ Trump told reporters.
‘So in addition to the big medical ships that you have coming, if we should need ships with lots of rooms, they’ll be docked in Los Angeles and San Francisco – different places.’
The suggestion came as a shock to many as officials have spent the past several weeks warning Americans to avoid cruise ships for their own safety after COVID-19 outbreaks ravaged multiple vessels.
President Donald Trump suggested at a White House news conference on Thursday that cruise ships could serve as floating hospitals to help alleviate a shortage of beds in traditional medical centers treating an influx of coronavirus patients
Trump said Carnival Cruise ships would be able to dock near areas hit hard by the pandemic – such as New York City and Los Angeles (file photo)
The suggestion came as a shock to many as officials have spent the past several weeks warning Americans to avoid cruise ships for their own safety after COVID-19 outbreaks ravaged multiple vessels – including the Grand Princess (pictured)
Trump announced the possible cruise ship support one day after revealing that he’d directed the Navy to dispatch two hospital ships capable of holding up to 1,000 passengers each to the East and West coasts.
‘They are massive ships. The big white ships with the red cross on the side. One is called Mercy and the other is called Comfort. They are in tip-top shape,’ Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.
‘Those two ships are being prepared to go and they can be launched over the next week or so, depending on need.’
Trump said Carnival Cruise Lines chairman Micky Arison (pictured) offered his fleet to the federal government
Navy officials later said it could be weeks before those ships are ready to go as they’re currently undergoing maintenance work and no medical crews have been set up to staff them.
The USNS Comfort, which is docked in Norfolk, Virginia, is not expected to arrive in New York Harbor until next month, officials say.
The USNS Mercy, which is docked in San Diego, California, is expected to be ready to ship off sooner, but its final destination has not been determined.
‘When it is prepared to sail, we will make a determination on where it is going to go,’ Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman told reporters after Trump spoke on Wednesday.
‘Staffing is an issue. We’re going to make sure that we do the best we can and that we get those resources off to the governors and to the mayors that have asked for them.’
Each ship is able to carry a medical crew of up to 1,200, which could take days to set up as soon as the vessels themselves are in shape to sail.
The 894-foot modified supertankers are decked out with 1,000 hospital beds, 12 operating rooms, a medical lab, digital radiological services, a pharmacy, an optometry lab, a CAT-scan and two oxygen producing plants.
President Trump directed the Navy to dispatch two hospital ships to the East and West coasts on Wednesday. The USNS Comfort (pictured) will dock in New York City
Officials have not yet decided where the USNS Mercy (pictured) will dock
Defense officials have cautioned that the ships are not built to deal with respiratory disease outbreaks because they don’t have segregated compartments, meaning they will not treat COVID-19 patients.
Instead, they would likely take on patients who are hospitalized for unrelated reasons to make room for COVID-19 patients in medical centers on land.
‘These ships are designed for trauma and combat casualties, and so that’s the staff that we’re planning to deploy with it right now,’ said Air Force Brig Gen Paul Friedrichs, a physician on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.
‘Our understanding is that the intent is the ship will be used to take on non-coronavirus patients, which is what our staff is best assigned and organized to do.’
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US climbed to 11,325 on Thursday, including 165 deaths
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo praised the president’s move to bring in military ships at a press conference earlier on Wednesday, the USNS Comfort would dock in New York City Harbor.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo praised the president’s move to bring in military ships at a press conference on Wednesday
‘This will be, it’s an extraordinary step obviously, it’s literally a floating hospital which will add capacity, and the president said he would dispatch that immediately,’ Cuomo said.
The governor has repeatedly warned that New York is far from prepared for when the outbreak reaches its peak.
On Wednesday he said the state has current capacity of 53,000 beds, but that the COVID-19 infection rate indicates the state will need 110,000 beds within 45 days.
‘The state can’t do this on its own,’ Cuomo said. ‘We can’t build new hospitals in 45 days.’
Defense Secretary Mark Esper has been working with Cuomo and other governors across the country on ways the US military can support states.
It’s been suggested troops could soon be called in to hard-hit areas to set up tent hospitals and renovate buildings for overflow facilities.
