National Guard arrives at Javits Center in Manhattan to build first of FOUR emergency hospitals

The National Guard has begun installing four hospital units for coronavirus patients inside the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. 

Dozens of troops arrived at the sprawling 1.3 million-square-foot convention center on Monday morning, hours after Governor Andrew Cuomo and President Donald Trump confirmed plans to set up 1,000 beds inside. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is slated to oversee the set-up of four separate wings with 250 beds each, and will also staff and stock the facility with medical supplies.  

‘This is literally a matter of life and death,’ Cuomo said Sunday. ‘[If] we get these facilities up, we get the supplies, we will save lives. If we don’t, we will lose lives. That is the simple fact of this matter. 

‘From my point of view, construction can start tomorrow. There is no red tape on the side of New York.’

New York City is now the focal point of America’s outbreak, with more than 12,000 of the almost 40,000 confirmed cases in the US and 100 of the nation’s 477 deaths as of Monday. 

The National Guard began installing four hospital units for COVID-19 patients inside the Jacob Javits Center on Monday

Dozens of troops arrived at the sprawling 1.3 million-square-foot convention center on Monday morning, hours after Governor Andrew Cuomo and President Donald Trump confirmed plans to set up 1,000 beds inside

Dozens of troops arrived at the sprawling 1.3 million-square-foot convention center on Monday morning, hours after Governor Andrew Cuomo and President Donald Trump confirmed plans to set up 1,000 beds inside

The Javits Center is located in the Hells Kitchen neighborhood on the west side of Manhattan. The exterior is pictured

The Javits Center is located in the Hells Kitchen neighborhood on the west side of Manhattan. The exterior is pictured

Cuomo held a press conference inside the Javits Center before National Guard members began setting up medical supplies

Cuomo held a press conference inside the Javits Center before National Guard members began setting up medical supplies

Cuomo toured the Javits Center on Monday and held a press conference there, where he said the Big Apple is still in ‘the calm before the storm’.  

‘This is going to get much worse before it gets better. You’re going to see more people coming into the health system than we can handle,’ he said. 

‘Once we get through that, we’ll focus like a laser on the economy.’ 

Cuomo said ‘first order of business’ was to stop the public health emergency, rather than fixing the economy.

‘We can fix everything else, but we can’t fix loss of health,’ he said. 

In addition to the Javits Center, Cuomo also asked the federal government to set up makeshift hospitals at the Westchester Convention Center, to accommodate the cluster of coronavirus cases in New Rochelle, and at the state universities in Stony Brook and Old Westbury, Long Island.  

President Trump confirmed the Javits Center efforts after Cuomo made his public request, but did not mention the other three locations.  

Cuomo has warned that the state will need to increase its hospital capacity by at least 100 percent if the virus continues spreading at its current rate. 

He predicted that 80 percent of New York’s 19 million residents will become infected over the next nine months. 

The governor issued an order on Sunday requiring all hospitals in the state to increase capacity by at least 50 percent, with a goal of 100 percent. 

He said the state currently has about 53,000 hospital beds available and expects that some 110,000 will be needed when the outbreak reaches its peak. 

As of Monday there are nearly 40,000 coronavirus confirmed coronavirus cases in the US and 477 deaths

As of Monday there are nearly 40,000 coronavirus confirmed coronavirus cases in the US and 477 deaths

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is slated to oversee the set-up of four separate wings with 250 beds each

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is slated to oversee the set-up of four separate wings with 250 beds each

FEMA will also staff and stock the Javits Center medical facility with equipment

FEMA will also staff and stock the Javits Center medical facility with equipment 

The Javits Center is typically reserved for large events such as auto shows and trade conventions

The Javits Center is typically reserved for large events such as auto shows and trade conventions 

National Guard members survey a mountain of medical equipment waiting to be unpacked at the Javits Center

National Guard members survey a mountain of medical equipment waiting to be unpacked at the Javits Center

Trump issued a disaster declaration on Sunday for New York, California and Washington – the three states with the highest number of coronavirus cases. 

‘The federal government has deployed hundreds of tons of supplies from our national stocks pile to locations with the greatest need in order to assist in those areas,’ the president said at a White House press briefing. 

‘Through FEMA, the federal government will be funding 100 percent of the cost of deploying national guard units to carry out approved missions to stop the virus while those governors remain in command.

‘We’ll be following them and we hope they can do the job and I think they will. I spoke with all three of the governors today, just a little while ago and they’re very happy with what we’re going to be doing.’ 

Trump also said Sunday he’d ordered FEMA to ship mobile hospital centers to all three states, along with supplies such as gloves, hospital beds, N95 masks and gowns. 

His administration emphasized that the deployment of guard members is not martial law, but the president invoked martial language as he discussed the development.  

‘I’m a wartime president,’ Trump said. ‘This is a war — a different kind of war than we’ve ever had.’ 

At least 7,300 National Guard members have already been deployed to all 50 states, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico to help with coronavirus relief efforts by distributing food, sanitizing public areas and building temporary screening centers and medical facilities.  

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