Army to send field hospital to Seattle to ease strain from coronavirus patients
The military is preparing to send a field hospital to Seattle to provide further medical assistance to medical centers there strained by coronavirus cases, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday.
The Defense Department will likely send the Army’s largest 248-bed tented field hospital, which can be quickly deployed, Esper said. It would treat only non-coronavirus patients.
“I suspect that will be the type that we are sending because they give the highest capacity in one fell swoop,” Esper said.
The tented field hospital is meant as a short-term measure until the Army Corps of Engineers can convert nearby empty hotel and college dorm rooms into hospital rooms, he said.
“We only have so many field hospitals,” Esper said. “I see us playing this role where we are the gap filler for a period of weeks with our capabilities. We can then pull out and go to the next city.”
Seattle was one of two potential locations that the Navy was set to deploy its 1,000-bed hospital ship Mercy. The Federal Emergency Management Agency decided that the ship was more needed for Los Angeles, Esper said.
The Mercy was departing San Diego Monday afternoon and expected to dock at the Port of Los Angeles in a few days, after running some required at-sea certification tests.
The Mercy will have medical personnel from bases along the West Coast, including Washington state’s Naval Hospital Bremerton and the Naval Health Clinic Oak Harbor, and California’s Naval Station San Diego, Naval Station Camp Pendleton and the Marine Corps base Twentynine Palms.
This story was originally published March 23, 2020 at 1:49 PM.
