NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) — Over the weekend, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the Jacob K. Javits Center in Manhattan will be converted into a temporary hospital to house non-COVID-19 patients, freeing up much-needed space in area hospitals for the infected.
As of Wednesday, New York has more than 17,800 confirmed cases and has reported at least 192 deaths since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S.
The main showroom of the convention center will be partitioned into four 250-bed hospitals, each about 40,000 square feet in size, and the facility will be staffed by 350 Federal Emergency Management Agency workers.
The temporary hospital is expected to be up and running by next week.
“All systems are go here as you can see behind me. The material has already started to arrive. We’ll start erecting the equipment upstairs. Luckily, Javits has plenty of space. We’ve been expanding Javits. This was never an anticipated use, but you do what you have to do. That’s the New York way, that’s the American way. And we’re going to get this done,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference while touring the facility.
Cuomo also thanked the team at the Javits Center. “I want to thank Alan Steele who runs this convention center. He has put on many shows before, and his team is very adaptable. But this is the first time they have ever built a hospital inside the Javits Center. So, I want to thank them very much.”
