The Jacob Javits Center on the West Side of Manhattan is NY’s largest convention center but is being converted into an emergency hospital to deal with an expected overflow of coronavirus patients.
The Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) has started to build a 1,000-bed temporary hospital at Javits that will help increase New York’s hospital capacity to combat COVID-19 and open next week. This is in addition to three sites selected by the Army Corps of Engineers that will create temporary hospitals in downstate New York with total capacity up to 4,000. The other temporary hospitals are at SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Old Westbury in Nassau County and the Westchester Convention Center.
Hospitals at the SUNY campus sites will be constructed indoors with outdoor tent support and the dormitories on the campuses will be used for healthcare staff to stay while working at the sites.
NY State has also leased the Brooklyn Health Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare with 600 beds to convert into a temporary hospital.
The Javits Center will be split into four 250-bed hospitals with additional capacity of 1,000 more beds if needed. They will be staffed by 320 federal workers.
Governor Cuomo also announced the distribution of medical supplies and equipment to hospitals across New York City, Long Island and Westchester to help front line healthcare workers combat COVID-19.
339,760 N-95 masks, 861,700 surgical masks, 353,300 gloves, 145,122 gowns and 197,085 face shields are being deployed from the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center to hospitals in those regions Wednesday.
- New York City will receive 169,000 N-95 masks, 430,850 surgical masks, 176,750 gloves, 72,561 gowns and 39,364 face shields
- Westchester County will receive 16,988 N-95 masks, 301,595 surgical masks, 17,675 gloves, 72,561 gowns and 3,926 face shields.
- Long Island will receive 33,976 N-95 masks, 86,170 surgical masks, 35,350 gloves, 14,512 gowns and 7,853 face shields.
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- The rest of New York State will receive 118,916 N-95 masks, 301,595 surgical masks, 123,735 gloves, 50,793 gowns and 27,485 face shields.
This disbursement is on top of the 1 million N-95 masks that the State purchased and sent to New York City and the approximately 500,000 N-95 masks that the State purchased and sent to Long Island last week.
The supplies are being distributed in consultation with the Greater New York Hospital Association and the Healthcare Association of New York State, both of which are helping identify hospitals in greatest need.
