US Open stadium to be used as makeshift hospital as part of plan to build 341 field sites to fight coronavirus
THE US Open stadium in NYC will be used as makeshift hospital as 341 field sites are built in the battle against the killer coronavirus.
The Arthur Ashe Stadium in the borough of Queens, which is the largest tennis stadium in the world, will converted as the US Army Corps of Engineers ramp up renovations.
The site of the announced it too would be becoming a medical facility for 350 non-coronavirus patients from next Tuesday, April 7.
The stadium complex, which holds 23, 771 spectators in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, will also act as a commissary where meals will be prepared for NYC's hard-hit healthcare workers.
Temporary facilities are already being built in and with other contracts being signed on Tuesday.
"New Yorkers don’t take this crisis lying down," NYC Mayor de Blasio said from the enormous stadium today.
"We’re not people who get defeated easily," he told reporters. "You'll see a place getting turned into a hospital - you’ll see unusual things."
The mayor's positive attitude was a change from his stricken tone earlier on Tuesday morning, when he said the .
De Blasio did not confirm whether the 2020 tourney would be canceled as a result of , saying "August may be a better time, but we may be fighting these battles."
On Monday, Lt. General Todd Semonite revealed the emergency measures on.
The Corps have already transformed the Jacob Javits Center into 2,500-bed facility while Central Park became a 68-bed field hospital with 20 ICU beds and the USNS Comfort docked at Pier 90 in Manhattan with 1,000 beds onboard.
St Regis and the Plaza hotel will provide beds for non-critical patients as the crisis and beyond.
In an informative Skype interview, Semonite agreed the "scope is immense" for converting facilities.
"There are three different aspects; there's a shortage of sites and facilities, a shortage of supplies and there's a potential shortage of staff.
"We're looking right now at 341 different facilities across all of the US [that will be] similar to the Javits Center."
Westchester Civic Center, SUNY Stony Brook and SUNY Westbury will also be converted to act as a relief valve for overwhelmed hospitals.
In Illinois, construction is also underway at McCormick Place, a Chicago exposition center, and two hospitals that aren't in use: the Metro South Medical on Blue Island and Sherman Hospital in England, IL.
The Comfort's sister hospital ship the USNS Mercy in to provide much-needed beds for non-coronavirus patients in the city.
Down South, Army National Guardsmen set up a field hospital in response to the coronavirus pandemic at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center today in Dallas.
Dallas County has the most coronavirus cases of any county in-state.
Together with Texas National Guard, the Army Corps are reportedly installing at least 250 beds at the Federal Medical Station (FMS), with the capacity for the convention center to hold as many as 1,400 beds.
Despite the daunting workload, Semonite said his Corps were eager to get to work before the disease peaks.
MOST READ IN NEWS
"There are eight contracts under gear right now which provide probably around 8,500 beds," he said on Monday.
"By the end of the day we should have another five contracts. We don't know where this is going to go.
"What the corps wanted to do was come up with an option... a solution that the states could employ."
The emergency conversions came about as around 236 million Americans are after President Trump added Ohio to the list of stricken areas on Tuesday.
Do you have a story for The US Sun team?
Email us at [email protected] or call 212 416 4552.