Update2: Hospital ships' activations

As part of the president's approach to fighting the coronavirus pandemic, the Defense Department has agreed to make available up to 5M respirator masks and personal protective equipment from its strategic reserves to the Department of Health and Human Services for distribution, SECDEF Mark Esper said at a news conference today. The first million masks would be made available immediately. Esper said some 2,000 deployable ventilators would also be made available, but are different from civilian equivalents and will require DoD special training for civilian users. DoD is considering use of the National Guard, Reserve components, and capabilities such as the Navy's hospital ships Comfort and Mercy. Comfort is undergoing maintenance on the East Coast at Norfolk, Va. Mercy is in port in San Diego. "We've already given orders to the Navy, a few days ago, to lean forward in terms of getting them ready to deploy," Esper said. "One of the ways you could use field hospitals, hospital ships or things in between is to take the pressure off the civilian hospitals when it comes to trauma cases to open up civilian hospital rooms for infectious diseases," SECDEF said. Gearing up DoD facilities and hospital ships require staff, and getting that staff in place means pulling them from military medical facilities throughout the country … or from the reserves (civilians), he continued. “I don't want to … take reservists from a (civilian) hospital where they are needed.” Esper spent part of the day visiting DoD doctors and scientists at Fort Detrick, Md., who are working on advancing vaccine. The expectation for a vaccine is about 12-to-18 months, but Fort Detrick has the ability to help in vaccine production if a private-sector facility were to develop a vaccine earlier. (Source: DoD 03/17/20) https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/2115200/dod-poised-to-provide-masks-ventilators-labs-for-coronavirus-fight/ UPDATE: DoD has started the process of activating Navy hospital ships Mercy (T-AH-19) and Comfort (T-AH-20). Each ship has a 1,000-bed capacity. Getting personnel ready to deploy requires about a week or more to mobilize personnel from across the East and West coasts. https://news.usni.org/2020/03/17/pentagon-preparing-navy-hospital-ships-mercy-comfort-for-coronavirus-response Gulf Coast Note: In the early fall of 2017, the Comfort was preparing for deployment in response to humanitarian needs in Puerto Rico. When activated, according to the Navy, Comfort’s crew grows to about 1,200 personnel. Nineteen (19) NH Pensacola, Fla., sailors, including numbers from Naval Branch Health Clinics Meridian, Miss., and Millington, Tenn., also were among that team joining Comfort in Norfolk. In 2015, another 19 NHP sailors took part in a Continuing Promise deployment to the Caribbean and Central and South America. UPDATE2: Comfort would dock in New York City's harbor. NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the decision to deploy the ship an "extraordinary step" because it was "literally a floating hospital." The ships won't treat coronavirus patients. They will be used to treat other illnesses/ injuries, to free up civilian hospitals. Comfort is not expected to deploy for week(s), meaning it will not provide immediate support. Mercy is likely to deploy sooner, though the Pentagon has not said where it will be sent.