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 COVID-19 renovations.
The site of the US Open tennis tournament announced it too would be becoming a medical facility for non-coronavirus patients.
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 New York and Illinois 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 no people who get defeated easily,” he told reporters. “You’ll see a place getting turned into a hospital – you’ll see unusual things.”
De Blasio did not confirm whether the 2020 tourney would be canceled as a result of the virus, 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 Good Morning America.
The Corps have already transformed the Jacob Javits Center into 2,500-bed facility while Central Park became a field hospital and the USNS Comfort docked at Pier 90 in Manhattan.
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.
Down South, Texas 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.
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Despite the daunting workload, Semonite said his Corps were eager to get to work before the disease peaks.
“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.”
