COVID-19

Cuomo: Army Corps looking to build field hospital at SUNY/Stony Brook; masks headed to LI

Governor Andrew Cuomo said Saturday that SUNY/Stony Brook is one of four locations across the state where the Army Corps of Engineers is looking to build a temporary hospital in an effort to increase the number of hospital beds during the coronavirus pandemic.

The other locations are at SUNY/Westbury, the Javits Convention Center and the Westchester Convention Center.

“The field hospitals are done by FEMA,” Gov. Cuomo said. “They are equipped hospitals that [treat] 250 people each. They are basically tent configurations.”

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The governor later clarified to say the 250 number is an estimate at this time.

Gov. Cuomo’s announcement came on a day that saw the number of positively diagnosed COVD-19 cases eclipsed the 10,000 mark. There are 662 cases in Suffolk County, the governor said. The hospitalization rate in New York dipped to 15%, but more than 1,500 individuals are now being treated for the virus in hospital beds across the state.

The governor also reported that 500,000 N95 masks are being shipped to Long Island in an effort to meet the demand in healthcare facilities.

“We are [also] purchasing 6,000 additional ventilators and gathering supplies from every source we get,” Gov. Cuomo said, adding that New York still needs 24,000 additional ventilators to combat the pandemic.

The governor also noted that New York has now done more testing per capita than anywhere else in the world.

“That is actually a great accomplishment,” he said, adding that the more tests you take, the more positive cases you find.

“Our goal is to find the positive cases,” he said. “If we find the positive cases we can isolate the person and contain the spread.”