Coronavirus Hospital Built In Central Park

CENTRAL PARK, NY — A field hospital is being built in Central Park's East Meadow to expand Mount Sinai Hospital's capacity as New York City hospitals are overwhelmed with patients coming in sick with coronavirus, city officials announced Sunday.

Mount Sinai is building the 68-bed facility with the help of a North Carolina-based evangelical group called Samaritan's Purse, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said. The field hospital is expected to be operational by Tuesday, de Blasio said.

The Central Park field hospital is the latest example of efforts to expand hospital capacity at Mount Sinai and at hospitals throughout the city. Mount Sinai is also re-purposing lobbies and other public spaces at its Upper East Side flagship into patient pods that could be up-and-running in the coming weeks, according to reports.

The 1,000-bed makeshift hospital created at the Javits Center in Manhattan will open this week and the 1,000-bed USNS Comfort will arrive in New York City on Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a Sunday press briefing.

City parks such as Central Park have not been shut down as the city and state encourages New Yorkers to adhere to social distancing measures implemented to curb the spread of coronavirus. De Blasio said during his Sunday briefing that fines between $250 and $500 may be given to people who show blatant disregard to social distancing efforts and ignore NYPD officers who attempt to remind people to follow distancing rules.

The city is removing sports equipment from parks where users refuse to comply with distancing measures, and de Blasio said Sunday that he wishes to keep playground open, but will consider shutting them down if there's a widespread disregard for social distancing.