Coronavirus: tent hospital erected in Central Park as New York struggles to cope with sick
- Samaritan’s Purse set up a similar temporary hospital in Italy, the country with the highest Covid-19 death toll
- City’s coronavirus death toll rose from 517 as of Saturday to 678 as of Sunday, nearly one fatality every nine minutes
An emergency hospital was erected in tents in Central Park Sunday as New York City’s staggering toll of coronavirus deaths rose to at least 776, pushing the statewide count past 1,000.
“We’re going to be using every place we need to use to help people,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “This is the kind of thing you will see now as this crisis develops and deepens.”
The emergency site will open at the park’s East Meadow on Tuesday and house 68 hospital beds for coronavirus patients, according to de Blasio. He said the Mount Sinai Health System, the faith-based charity Samaritan’s Purse – run by Franklin Graham, son of the late televangelist Billy Graham – the Central Park Conservancy and his own office were collaborating on the undertaking.
Graham put out a call for help on Twitter Sunday, and posted a video of workers building the tents to house the field hospital.
Samaritan’s Purse built a similar temporary facility in Italy to help deal with the crisis there.