You are reading

Temporary Hospital at U.S. Open Tennis Center Will Begin Taking Patients This Week

Photo: US Open

April 8, 2020 By Allie Griffin

The temporary hospital being built inside the Billie Jean King Tennis Center — the home of the U.S. Open — will begin seeing coronavirus patients this week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced today.

The hospital will also be able to see more patients than originally planned. The city increased the number of beds at the center from 350 to 470 beds.

Furthermore, 20 beds have been converted into ICU beds for the most vulnerable patients.

“One of the crucial things again [is] adding additional beds to relieve some of the pressure on our core hospitals,” de Blasio said his daily briefing this morning.

Last week, he said the temporary hospital will serve as a direct overflow facility for the heavily-burdened Elmhurst Hospital.

“This place will be a lifesaving place,” he said from inside the tennis center. “This place will not only help folks inflicted with coronavirus, help them to survive and recover and go home — it is specifically going to help patients who come through Elmhurst Hospital and can receive care here.”

The neighborhoods surrounding Elmhurst Hospital have become the epicenter of the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.

Queens overall has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and related deaths among the five boroughs — at 25,715 and 1,136 respectively, as of this morning — but the larger Elmhurst area has been particularly hit by the deadly virus.

Corona has the highest number of cases in the city at 1,659 cases, while Elmhurst has 1,142 and Jackson Heights has 916, as of yesterday at 5 p.m.

email the author: news@queenspost.com
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

MTA bus slams into pole in Flushing, injuring eight passengers: NYPD

The driver of the Q20A bus was traveling westbound on 57th Road just south of Kissena Corridor Park at 5:58 a.m. when he made a right turn onto Main Street, jumped the curb, and slammed into a light pole at the intersection of Booth Memorial Avenue and Main Street, an MTA spokesman said. There were seven passengers on the bus when it crashed. They were transported by EMS to New York-Presbyterian Hospital with minor complaints of pain, according to the NYPD spokesman.

The Q20A bus had significant front-end damage, and an MTA spokesman said the bus operator is being withheld from service pending the investigation. No criminality is suspected, and the investigation remains ongoing, the NYPD spokesman said.