Floating hospital ship admits its first N.J. coronavirus patient

USNS Comfort

Sailors assigned to the patient transport team prepare to receive the first patient from New Jersey and admit them to the hospital ship USNS Comfort.U.S. Navy photo by ENS James Caliva

A Navy ship docked in New York City accepted its first coronavirus patient from New Jersey on Friday, authorities said.

The USNS Comfort arrived at Pier 90 in Manhattan from Virginia on March 30 to provide relief for New York City hospitals that needed space for people who tested positive for the coronavirus. New York still leads the nation with the most coronavirus cases.

The ship began taking patients from New Jersey hospitals Friday in an effort to expand its COVID-19 response efforts, according to a release from the Navy.

“Every one of those that we pull from the community or from the city hospitals is one more open bed for New Jersey hospitals to refill,” Capt. Patrick Amersbach, commanding officer of the medical treatment facility aboard the Comfort, said in a statement. “I’m very proud of the crew, our medical providers, nurses, support staff that are providing outstanding care to the people of New York City and New Jersey. We look at it as one patient at a time.”

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State hospitals have coordinated with Comfort doctors to ensure patients, both critical and non-critical, could be effectively transferred across state lines and aboard the ship to receive care.

The 70,000-ton Comfort has 1,000 hospital beds, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy, an optometry lab, digital radiology, a CT scan, two oxygen-producing plants and a helicopter deck.

As of Friday afternoon, 163 patients have been treated on the ship and more than 80 have been discharged, authorities said. About half of the patients treated there have tested positive for COVID-19.

The Comfort has had four of its crew members test positive for the coronavirus and all of them have recovered and returned to work aboard the ship, officials said.

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Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

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