Posted on 03/17/2020 3:06:05 PM PDT by 11th_VA
The Pentagon is starting the process of activating Navy hospital ships USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) and USNS Comfort (T-AH-20) as part of the Defense Department’s domestic response to the spreading COVID-19 virus, USNI News has learned.
“We’ve already given orders to the Navy… to lean forward in terms of getting them ready to deploy,” Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told reporters on Tuesday.
The ships will now begin the several days-long process of bringing aboard medical staff and equipment ahead of deploying along the East and West coasts, a defense official confirmed to USNI News on Tuesday afternoon.
Two sources told USNI News that the idea was for the ships to provide relief for coastal hospital systems, with the ships taking on non-COVID-19 cases and allowing the hospitals to focus on the most critical patients suffering from the virus. The Pentagon also has extensive equipment for erecting field hospitals in addition to the hospital ships, but those facilities are optimized for trauma cases, with several beds close together, and not for infectious patients.
“So one of the ways you could use field hospitals, hospital ships or things in between is to take the pressure off of civilian hospitals when it comes to trauma cases, to open up civilian hospital rooms for infectious diseases,” Esper said.
On Monday, Joint Staff surgeon Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Friedrichs gave more details on how the ships could support civilian hospitals.
“If, for example, a community has a large outbreak and there’s a need for emergency room support or trauma support, a hospital ship is perfectly designed to do that,” Friedrichs told Politico on Monday. “It’s hard to get the hospital ship to St. Louis, but along the coasts, it is an option to use.”
Each ship has a 1,000-bed capacity ...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.usni.org ...
and the Dems are complaining that there hasn’t been a formal Declaration of War
That is brilliant.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ea/USS_Repose_AH-16_Yokosuka_1952.jpeg/1280px-USS_Repose_AH-16_Yokosuka_1952.jpeg
I toured the Comfort when it first came out of the ship yard years and years ago.
“Getting series”
Contingency plans are meant to be serious and not often used.
Smart move.
A good friend was chief anesthesiologist on the Comfort during Gulf War I. He was very glad to have very few patients.
If it turns out that they really do need more beds in a hurry, I think there may be some cruise ships avail.
Lol! And some hotel rooms....
That said, I don’t think it’s very likely. But if the cities had any sense, they’d use this as a time to get their “homeless” population sorted out.
Exactly! Good logistics.
Lol !!!
That has been mentioned also.
My niece is a nurse, and served on one of them - I suspect she might get recalled
Not a cruise ship that has had coronavirus cases aboard.
If it turns out that they really do need more beds in a hurry, I think there may be some cruise ships avail.
They will not require weeks of retrofitting and cleaning.
Good suggestion.
Godspeed to the Navy !!
United Together!!
Prayers UP!!!
Great to here
In 1983 and 1984 I worked on the SS Worth a tanker that was built at the NASSCO in San Diego. It was converted to the USS Mercy.
Yes, good use of Navy resources. You can always count on the Navy to come to the rescue.
We Saw the Sea (Fred Astaire in Follow the Fleet)
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