Sorry one New Yorker here that thinks there were some really bad mistakes at first (Subways and old age homes among others). There was plenty of room at Javits and other areas to send elderly cases.
I also wish the Javitz Center could have been used for the elderly. Unfortunately the Javitz Center and the USNS Comfort had certain restrictions in how they could be used because they were authorized by the federal government and not the state.
The USNS Comfort, it is a federal ship and a military ship. BOTH had certain restrictions and severely limited HOW the ship was able to be used.
It was originally requested to be used for the overflow of NON-Covid patients. So the hospitals could use more floors as COVID floors. Due to everyone quarantining, there turned out to be almost no accidents or other illnesses. So, the Comfort wasn't needed for that. The Gov. then requested that the Comfort be refitted for COVID patients. POTUS agreed. The Comfort was refitted from a 1000 patient facility to 500 to fit all the COVID equipment.
Unfortunately, due to being a military ship, it's regulations did not allow ANY patients to be transferred from another facility - either patients or nursing home patients. It could only accept new patients. Unfortunately, when ambulances picked up COVID patients from homes, they usually couldn't bring COVID patients to the Comfort, as it was next to impossible to move the gurney onto the ship. A patient had to be able to WALK themselves onto the ship. That usually wasn't COVID patients. That was WHY the Comfort was originally fitted as a Non-COVID facility. And why it ended up being barely used at all.
I think the Javitz Center had similar restrictions. It's still being kept as a back up in case NYC goes through COVID 2.0 this fall or winter.
But cheers NYers who all pulled together and wore masks, and t be honest I think it was because of what hit us so quickly and so severe.
Yes, we had our first 2 cases on March 1 & 2. By March 23, only 3 weeks later, we had over 20,000 case. While some places with lower numbers are criticizing NY for how we handled it.