A 1,000-bed U.S. Navy hospital ship is being rushed back into service to provide medical help to New York City, now the epicenter of the nation’s outbreak.

The USNS Comfort is heading through the Atlantic Ocean and making its way to dock at a Manhattan pier, right across the harbor from Weehawken.

 

 

The news comes just a week after its sister ship, the USNS Mercy, arrived in Los Angeles to perform a similar duty on the West Coast.

President Donald Trump was on hand for the ship’s departure ceremony over the weekend from Virginia.

The hospital on water will not be for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 though, but will instead handle trauma cases and other emergencies, allowing hospitals to devote more resources to coronavirus patients.

 

The ship has 12 operating rooms, a blood bank, medical lab, pharmacy, radiology suites and a CT scanner. The ship also has 1,200 members of the U.S. Navy, 15 patient wards, 80 ICU beds and 10 elevators. This makes the ship and its West Coast twin, the USNS Mercy, the fourth largest hospitals in the country.

New York Mayor Bill De Blasio is thankful for the much-needed relief.

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"This will right away be making a difference in this city and we are so, so grateful to the navy, to the military that this new help will be arriving in our city," says Mayor De Blasio.

 

President Trump has called the ship "a 70,000-ton message of hope and solidarity."

AP wire services helped contribute to this report.