Workers are in a desperate rush to dredge New York’s Pier 90 as the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort, which is prepared to assist overwhelmed medical staff, is scheduled to dock Saturday.
President Donald Trump authorized USNS Comfort, and similar hospital ship USNS Mercy, to be dispatched to the countries outbreak epicenters to ease the tension at local medical centers.
The U.S. hospital ships are meant to for non-coronavirus patients needing health care, as infected patients swarm local hospitals and the state’s
USNS Comfort houses more than 1,000 beds that is expected to free up space in packed hospitals.
Marine workers have been forced to dredge part of New York’s Pier 90 as USNS Comfort (pictured), a hospital ship, prepares to dock on Saturday
Reports say USNS Comfort is expected to arrive at Manhattan Cruise Terminal’s Berth 4’s in Pier 90 after Trump announced its departure
Marine Link reports that dredging contractor Donjon Marine Co., Inc was contacted last week about completing dredging at Manhattan Cruise Terminal’s Berth 4 last week.
The company began making preparations at least 10 days ahead of schedule, as well as transporting crew members and supplies from their New Jersey headquarters to the city.
The company also had to hasten needed authorizations and approvals from several officials at different levels.
Thomas Witte, Executive Vice President and Director of Dredging, said: ‘We needed expedited permits and authorizations from the federal government, state of New York, and the city in order to place dredge material in certain locations.
‘We were able to receive them – in less than 12 hours from being requested to issuance.’
Witte admitted that he’s never seen permit approvals happen so quickly, but ‘9/11 was close.’
Pictured: a graphic showing coronavirus-related infection and deaths in the state of New York
He shifted credit for the quick maneuvers to Jodi McDonald, Deputy Chief of Operations, Readiness, and Regulatory Functions Division, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Thomas Creamer, Chief of Operations.
William P. Doyle, Chief Executive Officer of the Dredging Contractors of America, said the company’s quick response was indicative of the dredging industry’s commitment to service.
‘When America says jump, we don’t ask why. We ask how high. That is what the U.S. dredging industry does – day in and day out,’ he said.
Trump announced yesterday that he planned to see off the USNS Comfort from it’s departure at the Naval Station in Norfolk, Virginia, Saturday.
Supplies are being loaded onto the deck of the USNS Comfort in Norfolk, Virginia on Tuesday as the ship is readied to deploy to New York City to offload non-COVID-19 patients from the city’s hospitals
‘I think I’m going to go out and, I’ll kiss it goodbye, I’ll go to – it’s in Virginia as you know, and I will go and we’ll be waving together, because I suspect the media will be following,’ Trump told reporters at the White House briefing.
Several moments after the president made the comments, the White House announced that he was serious and would travel to the Norfolk Naval Station on Saturday to ‘bid bon voyage to the hospital ship,’ a release to the press said.
The trip will mark the first time since the president has left Washington since March 9, when he hopped over to the suburbs of Orlando, Florida from his Palm Beach estate Mar-a-Lago to raise funds for his re-election campaign and then headed back to the White House.
President Trump announced Thursday that he would go ‘kiss’ the USNS Comfort goodbye on Saturday, as the White House confirmed he would travel to Norfolk, Virginia to watch the hospital ship set sail to New York City
The USNS Comfort will treat non-coronavirus patients and is expected to help local hospitals with the influx of patients
A subsequent trip scheduled for that week – to Las Vegas for fundraising and a Republican Jewish Coalition speech – was canned due to coronavirus concerns.
Trump has been in D.C. ever since.
The president initially announced that hospital ships Comfort and Mercy would be used during the pandemic on March 18.
At the time Pentagon spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman said that Comfort could take two weeks to deploy because maintenance was being finished up.
Trump said in the briefing room that the Comfort was way ahead of schedule.
‘So it’s going to be leaving on Saturday instead of three weeks from now,’ the president said.
The ship will depart four days ahead of schedule, according to the Pentagon’s two-week initial estimate.
The USNS Mercy, a second hospital ship, is sailing to Los Angeles and arrived Friday.
The USNS Mercy (pictured) has been dispatched to Los Angeles, California, to help medical staff and doctors
On Friday, reports revealed that the state’s death toll soared to 519 after 134 people died in just one day.
There are now more than 44,000 cases of the virus in New York state including 25,398 in New York City. In the United states, cases are surpassed 92,000 cases and 1,300 deaths.
De Blasio said Friday that New Yorkers should be ‘ready’ for New York City to stay closed until May.
He said: ‘I think we need to be ready for that,’ then went on to slam President Trump’s Easter deadline to reopen the country as something that gave ‘false hope’ to the nation.
Pictured: A single death was reported on March 14, but the numbers quickly surged past 100 as pandemic spread
In New York state, March 26 saw the death toll rise wit 385 after 100 people died that day
De Blasio also warned that ‘more than half’ of New York City – which has a population of 8.6million – would become infected with the virus at any one time.
His prediction came as research from the University of Washington School of Medicine suggested as many as 81,000 would be killed by the virus in the US and that the pandemic will not be over until June.
He said the majority, 80 percent, would suffer flu like symptoms but that some would die.
‘Here’s the reality in NYC, people we have to be real honest about where this is going
There are around 92,000 coronavirus infection in the United States and more than 1,300 deaths thus far
‘Unfortunately we think it’s going to go through April and in to May. It’s just a blunt reality.
‘Over half of people in this city will ultimately be infected.
‘Thank god for 80 percent, that will be very little impact in truth – it’s like having cold or flu and you get through it in seven to 10 days.
‘But for 20 percent of the people infected, it’s going to be tough and for some of them, of course it’s going to be fatal,’ he said.
The hospital ships can help medical staff who’ve become swamped by patients within the last few week.
At least 13 people died in a 24 hour span at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, New York.
Additionally, doctors have fallen ill with coronavirus due to close proximity.
Early research said that medical staff is more likely to contract coronavirus than the average person and, unfortunately, could experience more severe symptoms.
The hospital ships come as after Trump claimed Gov. Andrew Cuomo was exaggerating the New York state’s medical needs in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
He said: ‘Governor Cuomo and others they say they want 30,000 of them. Thirty thousand!’
‘Think of this, you go to hospitals and they have one. And now all of a sudden everybody is asking for these vast numbers.’
The United States has amassed more than 92,000 coronavirus cases as of Friday, March 27, after cases appear to begin spiking around March 22
Coronavirus hotspots across the United States includes Washington, California, Georgia and New York, the latter of which has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country
Trump also said Cuomo was ‘complaining’ too much. Cuomo hit back on Friday by saying he creates protocol based on facts, not opinions.
He said: ‘I don’t have a crystal ball. Everybody is entitled to an opinion, but I don’t operate here on opinion.
‘I operate on facts and data and numbers and projections… all of them say you could have an apex needing about 40,000 ventilators.’
Cuomo also revealed a 1,000 bed field hospital in an effort to have enough beds for patients.
Of the spike in deaths, he said: ‘We’re seeing a significant increase in deaths because the length of time people are on the ventilator is increasing. We expect that to continue to increase.
Gov Andrew Cuomo (pictured) hit back at Donald Trump’s claims that he’s exaggerating New York state’s medical needs by saying: I operate on facts and data and numbers and projections… all of them say you could have an apex needing about 40,000 ventilators
‘It’s bad news, it’s tragic news, the worst news. But it’s not unexpected news,’ he said.
They will go up in college campuses, hotels and exposition centers. Cuomo needs the president to sign off on the plan for him to be able to put it into action.
Meanwhile Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s top disease expert, was forced to again pour cold water on Trump’s repeated suggestion that the US could be back open for business by April 12.
‘I think what the President was trying to do, he was making an aspirational projection to give people some hope,’ Facui – who was briefly banished from coronavirus press briefings after contradicting Trump – told CNN.
‘But he’s listening to us when we say that we’ve really got to reevaluate it in real time, and any decision we make has to be based on the data,’ he added.
Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams appeared to back up these claims during a Good Morning America interview on Friday morning.
He claims that some states may be battling coronavirus infections until Labor Day.
Adams said: ‘Everyone’s timeline is going to be different. Some places haven’t hit their peak yet.
‘We’re trying to give people the testing data to make informed choices. It doesn’t matter if it’s Easter, Memorial Day or Labor Day.
‘We know we want people to be thinking about what they can do now to get through as few deaths and hospitalizations as possible.’
While the US is behind China and South Korea by around seven weeks, he said the evidence in those two countries suggests the steps being taken now are working.
‘We know it’s working. We know that China and South Korea are reopening,’ he said.