Navy Hospital Ship Comfort Arrives In NYC As Number Of Coronavirus Deaths In Country Climbs Past 3,000

The Associated Press: US Nears China's Virus Death Toll As New York Calls For Help
The mounting death toll from the virus outbreak in the United States had it poised Tuesday to overtake China’s grim toll of 3,300 deaths, with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo saying up to 1 million more healthcare workers were needed. “Please come help us,” he urged. Hard-hit Italy and Spain have already overtaken China and now account for more than half of the nearly 38,000 COVID-19 deaths worldwide, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. (Perry and Noveck, 3/31)

The Wall Street Journal: New York Hospitals Plan Coordination As Coronavirus Deaths In State Top 1,200
A U.S. Navy hospital ship arrived in New York City on Monday to help alleviate the strain of the coronavirus crisis on local hospitals, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo outlined a new statewide plan to coordinate medical care for the infected. The USNS Comfort will provide 1,000 hospital beds to the city, which has become the epicenter of the virus’s outbreak in the country. After welcoming the ship on Manhattan’s West Side, Mr. Cuomo held a press conference at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which is being converted into a 2,500-bed hospital and began receiving patients Monday. (Chapman, 3/30)

The Associated Press: 'Staggering': New York Virus Death Toll Rises Above 1,200
The Comfort, which was also sent to New York after the 9/11 terror attacks, has 12 operating rooms that could be up and running within 24 hours, officials said. The ship is docked just north of a temporary hospital constructed inside the cavernous Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. State and city officials are trying to increase hospital capacity by up to 87,000 beds to handle the outbreak. “We bring a message to all New Yorkers – now, your Navy is returned and we are with you committed in this fight,” said Rear Admiral John Mustin. (Hays and Villeneuve, 3/30)

Politico: USNS Comfort Arrives In New York City
“Our nation has heard our plea for help here in New York City,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said as he greeted the ship at Pier 90. “There could not be a better example of all of America pulling for New York City than the arrival of the USNS Comfort.” The ship, emblazoned with red crosses on its white hull, will not treat coronavirus patients, but will take on other patients including trauma cases, freeing up beds at local hospitals focused on combating the pandemic. It will have 750 beds ready to treat patients immediately. (Durkin, 3/30)

Politico: FEMA Sends Refrigerated Trucks To New York City To Hold Bodies
FEMA is sending refrigerated trucks to New York City to serve as temporary morgues as the death toll from the coronavirus grows. There is a “desperate need” for morgue space in Queens in particular, FEMA regional administrator Thomas Von Essen said Monday. The borough has the most coronavirus cases in the city, and Elmhurst hospital has been swamped with gravely ill patients. (Durkin, 3/30)

Reuters: U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Rises Past 3,000 On Deadliest Day
In a grim new milestones marking the spread of the virus, total deaths across the United States hit 3,017, including at least 540 on Monday, and the reported cases climbed to more than 163,000, according to a Reuters tally. People in New York and New Jersey lined both sides of the Hudson River to cheer the U.S Navy ship Comfort, a converted oil tanker painted white with giant red crosses, as it sailed past the Statue of Liberty accompanied by support ships and helicopters. (Kelly and Trotta, 3/30)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Prepares For Prolonged Shutdowns As Coronavirus Strains Hospitals
At the beginning of March, the U.S. had reported fewer than 100 confirmed cases of Covid-19, the pneumonialike disease caused by the virus. It now has more than 159,100 confirmed infections, the most of any country, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, though the country’s 2,945 deaths are far less than in Italy and Spain, Europe’s worst-hit nations. Italy’s death toll climbed Monday to 11,591—the highest of any country. Spain, with 7,340 deaths, is the second hardest-hit country. Both, like the U.S., have surpassed China in total confirmed cases. (Calfas, Ping and Simmons, 3/30)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Pandemic Could Kill As Many As 200,000 In U.S., White House Warns
Michigan, which Trump said Monday was “becoming a hotbed,” reported an 18 percent surge in cases from a day earlier, along with more than 50 additional deaths — bringing its total fatalities to 184. Michigan’s nearly 6,500 confirmed cases was the third-highest total in the nation, behind New Jersey (more than 16,600) and New York (more than 66,000). (Zapotosky, Wagner and Iati, 3/30)

Stat: As Coronavirus Spreads, ER Doctors Warn 'The Worst Of It Has Not Hit Us Yet'
Streets in cities and towns across the country are eerily quiet. Car traffic has dropped so substantially air pollution is abating. In many places, people are hunkered down indoors, trying to avoid contracting Covid-19. But the true battle against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the disease, is playing out in hospitals that are currently — or will soon be — engulfed in an onslaught of patients struggling to breathe. (Branswell, 3/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Queens Stadium To Be Converted Into Temporary Hospital In Coronavirus Fight
New York City’s emergency management office plans to build a 350-bed facility at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park as efforts intensify to supplement hospital space as the U.S. battles the coronavirus pandemic. Construction could begin as early as Tuesday at an indoor training center at the facility, which has multiple courts and wide spaces, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Tennis Association. The beds will likely be for patients who don’t have Covid-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, but that could change depending upon need, according to a spokeswoman for the city. (Honan, 3/30)

NBC News: 'It's Surreal,' Nurse Practitioner Says Of Field Hospital Set Up In Central Park Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
Shelly Kelly, a nurse practitioner from Tulsa, Oklahoma, never imagined that on her first trip to New York City, she would be unable to visit some of the area's biggest attractions. "I had no idea that on my first trip to New York I wouldn't be able to see a Broadway show. I wouldn't be able to go out to all the nice restaurants I've heard about. I wouldn't be able to see people around Times Square. It's completely different," said Kelly, who landed in New York on Sunday. Instead, Kelly will be among a few dozen nurses and doctors from Samaritan's Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian humanitarian organization, working at a field hospital set up in Central Park — across the street from Mount Sinai Hospital — for patients battling COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. (Griffith, 3/30)

ProPublica: Life On A Block With An Emergency Morgue Truck: 'We Hear The Hum Of The Refrigerator Going All Night Long'
Across New York City, there are unthinkable scenes everywhere. Empty public spaces. Teeming emergency rooms. Shuttered churches. For Marc Kozlow, the unthinkable played out on Stanhope Street in Brooklyn this weekend. He lives on the block with his fiancee and dog, a rescue named Hank. Near his apartment is Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, a 350-bed nonprofit hospital in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood. Most of the hospital’s patients are people of color; about a fifth are 70 or older. (Waldman, 3/30)