Giant Floating Hospital in New York: April 1, 2020: With more than 1.5 lakh infections and 3573 deaths from coronavirus, the situation is becoming gloomy in America. Especially in New York with surge inpatient count hospitals are under pressure. Amid the chaos, US Navy’s gigantic floating hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, arrived in New York City on March 30. It is assumed that Comfort’s high operating capacity is all set to relieve the constraints over the city’s medical infrastructure.
Giant Floating Hospital in New York :- Bed Capacity
Comfort has 1,000 beds and 12 operating rooms. These will be largely used for non-coronavirus patients. This would in return free up much-needed space at the city’s overcrowded hospitals. The ship is typically used to support military campaigns and humanitarian crises abroad. It includes calamities like earthquakes and hurricanes. Most recently, it was deployed to Latin America where it was helping countries who are inadequate in health care.
Deployed all over the world
The ship has been in operation for almost four decades. Since then it has been deployed all around the world. It is made out of a San Clemente-class oil supertanker called the SS Rose City. It was built by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego in 1976. The US Navy purchased it in 1987. The purchase was done along with another supertanker, with the goal of converting both into Mercy-class hospital ships. The Comfort’s sister ship, the USNS Mercy, is currently being deployed to the West Coast of the country.
The build
The ship is around 100 feet tall, which is the size of a 10-story building. It has a deep draft which displaces 70,473 tons of water. Hence in many ports, it has to stand at least a mile offshore. Its length is over 894 feet. Additionally, it sizes equivalent to three football fields. Also, it can travel at a speed of 17.5 knots (20.1 mph). In order to receive patients, it houses a large helipad. Hence, it can allow landing large, military-grade helicopters.
High operational capacity
Comfort has 1,000 beds, 500 of which are designated for minimal case needs. Another 400 are for intermediate cases, 20 for surgical recovery, and 80 for intensive care patients. The Comfort will be docked while in New York City. It was designed with a large rounded hull for improved stability for surgeries. As intensive procedures that needed to be performed at sea.