Navy Ships arrive on each coast to aid with COVID-19 treatment

The United States Navy has deployed two ships to help US hospitals with the overflow of patients due to Coronavirus. 

According to ABC News, The USNS Mercy arrived in Los Angeles on Friday, March 27th and the USNS Comfort arrived in New York earlier today, Monday, March 30th. Both ships will be used to treat patients suffering from ailments other than COVID-19, freeing up space in the hospitals for COVID-19 patients as well as preventing the spread of the virus to other patients. 

Getting ready to go make a difference.#USNSComfort (T-AH 20) takes on fuel & supplies in preparation to deploy in support of the nation’s #COVID19 response efforts. Comfort will serve as a referral hospital for non-COVID-19 patients currently at shore-based hospitals. pic.twitter.com/7YQpp44DnM

— U.S. Navy (@USNavy) March 25, 2020

Both ships are 894 feet long and stocked with life-saving equipment, operating rooms, oxygen producing plants, and 1,200 Navy medical and communications personnel and more than 70 civil service mariners. 

The USNS Mercy’s medical treatment facility has a medical crew, from the “Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery responsible for operating and maintaining one of the largest trauma facilities in the United States.”