US Hospital Ship Comfort To Arrive In New York Ahead Of Plan Early Next Week - Pentagon

The US naval hospital ship Comfort will arrive in New York ahead of schedule and may be available to help early next week patients infected with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Acting Secretary of Navy Thomas Modly told reporters on Thursday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th March, 2020) The US naval hospital ship Comfort will arrive in New York ahead of schedule and may be available to help early next week patients infected with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Acting Secretary of Navy Thomas Modly told reporters on Thursday.

"We had been looking by April 3, but likely [Comfort] is going be getting underway this weekend.

So, hopefully she will be in New York by the early part of next week," Modly said during a press briefing.

Initially, Comfort was scheduled to arrive in New York by April 3, but Defense Department decided to accelerate this plan, Modly added.

As of Thursday, New York City has more than 20,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, and the death toll has increased to 280, according to the Johns Hopkins University real-time COVID-19 tracker.