Pentagon: NYC's Javits Center to get more ICU beds

On a day when New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state recorded 731 new coronavirus deaths, marking its biggest single-day jump, the Pentagon said it will equip the Javits Center, the military's temporary hospital in Manhattan, with nearly fifty additional ICU beds to treat COVID patients.

"We've got another 48 bed ICU that's in route now from (New Jersey's) Fort Dix," said Maj. General William Hall in a conference call with reporters.

"It will arrive later today, and then another 48 hours will have it up. So that'll give us 96 ICU beds to be able to receive patients.

The Javits Center, like the USNS Comfort, was originally planned to handle non-COVID patients, but the Trump administration recently changed course at the request of Governor Cuomo, and now both facilities will receive patients stricken by the virus.

"That's taken a few days to work through and work out the protocols and the processes," said Jonathan Hoffman, the Pentagon's spokesman.

"But it looks like the great progress has been made over the last 48 hours. And we expect that system to to continue to to smooth out in the coming days, as the need arises," he said.

A crew member of a Navy hospital ship sent to New York City for the coronavirus outbreak has tested positive for the disease.

On Monday, a USNS Comfort crew member tested positive Monday and was being isolated, the Navy said in a prepared statement. The positive test will not affect the hospital ship’s mission to receive patients, according to the Navy.

The Comfort has treated about 40 non-COVID-19 patients since arriving in the city last week. But President Donald Trump said Monday he'd allow coronavirus patients aboard the ship.

Though the Comfort has 1,000 beds, Cuomo has said the transition to handling coronavirus patients will reduce the ship's capacity to 500 beds.