Health & Fitness
City Preps Queens U.S. Open Stadium For Coronavirus Patients
Black-curtained, makeshift hospital rooms now line an indoor training facility at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens.
FLUSHING, QUEENS — The city is in the process of building a temporary hospital at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park to house patients with the new coronavirus.
Photos from the city's Department of Design and Construction show rows of black-curtained, makeshift hospital rooms lining an indoor training facility at the tennis stadium complex, which is home to the U.S. Open tournament.
The temporary facility will have 470 hospital beds, including 20 ICU beds, Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters Wednesday. Original plans announced last week called for 350 beds, none of which would be used for patients needing ICU care.
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"We're still working always, always from the worst-case scenario to make sure that whatever happens with this disease, New York City is ready," de Blasio said. "So, one of the crucial things, again, is adding additional beds to relieve some of the pressure on our core hospitals."
At least some patients will come from the city-run Elmhurst Hospital, where a spike in coronavirus cases pushed the hospital way over capacity.
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Patients are due to start arriving at the temporary hospital this week, officials said.
"Before this crisis, all hospitals combined had 20,000 staffed beds. We have to dramatically increase that—and quickly," de Blasio said in a tweet on March 31. "Places like the Tennis Center hospital will help us meet that demand and we'll keep fighting every single day to build more of them across the city."
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