NEW YORK — By mid-day Tuesday, the Norfolk-based Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort was up to 44 patients. Five of them tested positive for the coronavirus.
One of them is a member of the ship's own medical staff.
The Navy says that sailor has been placed in isolation, and there has been no impact to the rest of the crew nor the mission.
Things changed for the Comfort when two days ago, President Donald J. Trump said the ship would, in fact, begin to treat coronavirus cases even though that wasn't originally the plan.
"We've had to adjust what we do and how we do it," said Vice Admiral "Woody" Lewis, commander of U.S. Navy Second Fleet. "And reconfigure the ship accordingly. But I'm very confident that we've taken all the requisite steps to do so and that's mitigated what risk we have incurred to the maximum degree possible."
Lewis said that given how overburdened New York City hospitals are with COVID-19 cases, it is important that the Comfort was able to shift gears and begin seeing such patients themselves.
"For the Comfort to be a part of the relief of the the pressure on the New York City hospitals, we have to be able to do this," he said. "Because, this is where there are a tremendous number of patients in the hospitals, most of which are COVID positive."
Lewis said 500 of the ship's 1,000 beds are fully ready to accept coronavirus patients. About 100 of them are Intensive Care Unit beds. He said the ship currently has 100 ventilators on board.