With tens of millions of Americans on lockdown and more expected, the United States military is likely to take on a greater role in helping to stop the spread of the coronavirus in the coming days and weeks.
The US Army Corps of Engineers is looking at converting more than 10,000 rooms in New York, potentially in hotels and college dorms, into medical care units to help address the fast-spreading coronavirus, the commanding general of the Army Corps said on Friday.
President Trump on Friday declared New York State a major disaster area as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases skyrockets and New York City was declared the epicenter of the US outbreak by Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Members of the Maryland Army National Guard set up a triage tent in the parking lot of a hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Thursday
Hospitals across the country are preparing for an influx of additional patients due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Maryland Army National Guard troops set up triage tent outside the Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center on Thursday
Members of the New York Army National Guard and U.S. Air Force prepare to hand out food to residents at a distribution station outside New Rochelle High School in New Rochelle, New York, on March 12, 2020
The pandemic has upended life in much of the United States, shuttering schools and businesses, prompting millions to work from home, forcing many out of jobs and sharply curtailing travel.
Lieutenant General Todd Semonite told reporters at the Pentagon that the Army Corps was looking at converting the rooms and other large spaces into intensive care unit-type facilities and it would need to happen within weeks, not months.
‘We’re talking about over 10,000 that we are looking at right now,’ Semonite said, adding that a decision would be made by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Earlier this week, the White House said it was in talks with the Pentagon about how the military can be deployed to deal with the coronavirus, including setting up field hospitals in states with a surge in cases.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has called for the Army Corps to increase hospital capacity.
The Army Corps of Engineers is made up of 37,000 soldiers and civilians providing engineering services in more than 130 countries, its website says.
The head of the US National Guard said on Thursday that he expected that tens of thousands National Guard troops could eventually be involved in efforts to help deal with the fast-moving coronavirus in the United States, but he did not see a need to federalize them.
‘It’s hard to tell what the exact requirement will be, but I’m expecting tens of thousands to be used inside the states as this grows,’ General Joseph Lengyel, chief of the National Guard Bureau said during a Pentagon press briefing.
Lengyel said while the president could federalize the National Guard, but he did not believe it made sense in this situation and was not aware of any plan to do so.
All 50 states have declared an emergency, which is a critical step before governors deploy the National Guard.
As of Friday, 3,300 National Guard troops have been called up in some capacity across 28 states.
Puerto Rico is so far the first and only US territory that has activated the National Guard.
Guardsmen and women will assist in sample collection, supporting medical testing facilities, disinfecting and cleaning common public spaces, transportation, and administrative duties, according to the Military Times.
The National Institutes of Health Friday warned that up to 70,000 Americans could be confirmed as having coronavirus by the end of next week in ‘dramatic increase’ of cases, up from the current tally of more than 19,600 confirmed cases.
The emergency declaration issued Friday by the Federal Emergency Management Agency provides access to $42billion in aid from the Disaster Relief Fund, the New York Post reported.
FEMA will now be able to send personnel and resources to the state, as well as set up mobile coronavirus testing centers, disinfect public facilities and provide in-demand medical supplies including face masks, gloves and surgical gowns.
The declaration also allows the US military to make further assistance plans.
In addition to converting hotels, dorms, and sports arenas into makeshift hospitals, the military will also be making two hospital ships and more than five million face masks, coronavirus test kits and ventilators available to regions that are most in need.
Ventilators are in huge demand across New York State.
At the Bronx’s Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, a doctor told the New York Times that they only had a few ventilators left for coronavirus patients who needed them to breathe.
‘This COVID-19 pandemic is a historic event and it requires a historic response from the National Guard,’ said Air Force General Joseph Lengyel, National Guard Bureau chief.
‘My number one priority is taking care of our National Guard Soldiers, Airmen and their families.
‘The readiness of our force will be critical to the success of this nation’s COVID-19 response efforts.’
Still, officials have been warning that the military may not be fully equipped to deal with the complexities of battling infectious diseases.
Military officials have cautioned that while the Pentagon is ready to help, most of the military’s readily available medical resources are focused on trauma care rather than infectious diseases.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Tuesday that he was considering activating National Guard and reserve military units but such a move could take weeks.
Still, Esper, like other Defense officials, said that there were limitations to what the military could provide.
‘In some ways we want to be the last resort,’ Esper said.
Speaking with reporters at the Pentagon, Esper cautioned that while he was willing to send the Army Corps of Engineers to help set up field hospitals, the military would have to go through a rigorous contracting process and it could be quicker to do contracting at the state or local level.
‘The Army Corp of Engineers is ready, willing and able. We have to give them the go-ahead if we find that it’s going to be necessary,’ President Donald Trump said.
Esper also noted that a full-scale mobilization of the National Guard reserve units is complicated by the fact that reservists, particularly those in the health and medical fields, are civilians who would be pulled away from their jobs, where they are badly needed now.
‘All those doctors and nurses come from our medical treatment facilities or they come from the reserves which means, civilians so what we need to be very conscious of as we call up these units and use them to support the states that we aren’t robbing Peter to pay Paul,’ Esper said.
The Pentagon chief also said that he had ordered the Navy to get ready to deploy two hospital ships, if needed, to help reduce the stress on hospitals dealing with the virus.
He added however, that the ships would have to be manned by doctors who are currently working in hospitals.
‘What I don’t want to do is take reservists from a hospital where they are needed, just to put them on a ship, to take them somewhere else where they are needed,’ Esper said.
‘We’ve got to be very conscious of that.’
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday that the Pentagon agreed to send the USNS Comfort, the floating hospital, to New York Harbor to help deal with the crushing onslaught of patients currently filling up emergency rooms.
While the hospital ship has around 1,000 beds, Esper cautioned that it was built to deal with trauma and may not have the ability to offer segregated treatment spaces necessary to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
‘[Hospital ships] don’t necessarily have segregated spaces to deal with infectious diseases,’ Esper said.
‘One of the ways you can use field hospitals or hospital ships in between is to take the pressure off of civilian hospitals when it comes to trauma cases, to open up civilian hospital rooms for infectious diseases.’
The Pentagon will make available up to 5 million respirator masks and protective equipment, including 1 million immediately, from its strategic reserves for US government distribution.
Lines form outside hospitals, ventilators run low and almost two people an hour die in pandemic in NYC
De Blasio had urged Trump to send in the military and its logistical support to hard-hit New York State, California and Seattle on Wednesday.
On Friday de Blasio said: ‘We constitute 30 percent of the cases in the US and 70 per cent of the cases in New York State. Whether we like it or not, we are the epicenter.’
The president’s declaration comes as a hospital in the Bronx revealed it is running low on ventilators and a Queens doctor revealed that an elderly patient experiencing coronavirus symptoms died on the hospital ward floor.
On Friday, patients were seen lining up around the block at test centers in New York City as they tried to get tested for the disease. One video showed hundreds lining up waiting to be tested at Queens’ Elmhurst Hospital.
Cuomo had asked for the major disaster declaration, which paves the way for the federal government to pay for up to 75 per cent of the state’s bills for its emergency response to the pandemic.
New York State now has the most confirmed COVID-19 cases in the nation, with 8,515 diagnoses and 56 deaths, as the number of confirmed cases shot up by more than 2,000 between Thursday and Friday.
De Blasio said during a press conference Friday that there are 5,151 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the nation’s largest city – more than a fourth of the nation’s total cases. The number later rose to 5,683.
In New York City between the hours of 10am and 6pm on Friday, 14 people died from coronavirus, meaning almost two people an hour died, as the total number of deaths in NYC reached 43 people.
In a press conference on Friday, Cuomo issued a plea for medical offices to provide unused ventilators to New York hospitals as the state faces a shortage amid the pandemic.
Prior to Trump’s declaration, Cuomo issued a total ban on non-essential businesses and warned there would be strict fines for any businesses that do not comply Friday.
The ban – which will impact 19.5million people – is to go into effect on Sunday evening and is indefinite.
Work forces that are excluded are grocery stores, pharmacies, certain government workers, food deliveries and restaurants, internet service providers and news organizations.
Public transportation would also continue as usual and ‘for hire vehicles’ were included as essential businesses which would appear to mean Ubers and Lyft will still operate. Pool rides have been stopped.
President Trump (pictured Friday) declared New York a major disaster area Friday evening, paving the way for the state to have access to FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, as well as FEMA personnel and resources
White House coronavirus expert Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke around an hour after Cuomo’s announcement to say he ‘strongly supported it’.
Cuomo said he had tried to put off the order but felt he could no longer hold off as the number of cases continued to rise.
‘These actions will cause businesses to close. They will cause much unhappiness. I understand that.
‘I’ve spoken to my colleagues around the state, there’s a spectrum of opinion. Some people say we don’t need to do this, it’s going to hurt the economy. Just so we’re all clear – this is a state wide order.
‘It’s not what your county executive is doing, your mayor, it’s not what anyone else but me is doing. I accept full responsibility.
‘If someone is unhappy and wants to blame someone or complain about someone – blame me. There is no one else who is responsible for this decision.
‘I’ve been in public service for many, years, managed dozens of emergencies, the philosophy that always worked is prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
‘That is what we’re doing. ‘In 10 years, I want to be able to say I can say to the people of New York that I did everything I could do.
‘This is about saving lives and everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy. This is science and math. Watch the number and trajectory.
‘You have the density control valve. If the number doesn’t slow down, tighten the valve more… then close the valve. We’re closing the valve.
‘Everybody has personal freedom and I’ll always protect that….but everybody also has a responsibility.
‘We’re all in quarantine now. We’re all in various levels of quarantine,’ he said.
Trump’s declaring New York a major disaster area marks the first time in US history that a president has ever done so over a public health threat.