{"id":54398,"date":"2020-04-03T15:00:43","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T15:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/04\/03\/dod-expands-care-to-covid-19-patients-in-three-locations\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T08:54:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T08:54:58","slug":"dod-expands-care-to-covid-19-patients-in-three-locations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2020\/04\/03\/dod-expands-care-to-covid-19-patients-in-three-locations\/","title":{"rendered":"DoD expands care to COVID-19 patients in three locations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Military medical support<\/a> in New York City, New Orleans and Dallas will expand to include COVID-19 patients<\/a>, and the Navy hospital ship in New York Harbor will begin pier-side screening to reduce the backlog at hospitals, the Pentagon announced Friday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shift comes after commanders of the USNS hospital ships Mercy and Comfort<\/a> said they\u2019ve remained mostly vacant since they arrived in Los Angeles and New York City, respectively. Those vessels, and the Army field hospital established inside the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan<\/a>, previously said they\u2019d take only non-COVID-19 patients to serve as a relief valve for local hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Defense Department has expanded that coverage to COVID-19 patients at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The change impacts the Morial Federal Medical Station in New Orleans and the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Federal Medical Station in Dallas, as well. Another medical station still being set up at the CenturyLink Center in Seattle was not included in the Pentagon announcement, but it has also not started accepting patients yet. All of these locations are DoD-supported, working alongside the Department of Health and FEMA.<\/p>\n\n\n\t