Medical supplies are displayed before a news conference with Gov. Andrew Cuomo at the Jacob Javits Center. | AP Photo Javits Center and USNS Comfort have a combined 110 patients

NEW YORK — The military-run hospitals at the Javits Center and onboard the USNS Comfort remain mostly empty — so far treating only 110 patients between them, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.

Both facilities were established in New York after Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio begged for federal support last month to manage the spiraling outbreak of the coronavirus, but they have been hampered by logistical and communication constraints, officials said. Javits, the sprawling convention center on the West Side of Manhattan, has a capacity for 2,500 people but so far has 66 patients. The Comfort, the Navy hospital ship docked in the Hudson River, has 44 patients out of a capacity for 500.


“We expect to increase the number of patients rapidly in the next few days,” Department of Defense spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman told reporters during an afternoon conference call.

More than 15,000 people have been hospitalized in New York City with Covid-19.

Both originally planned to take only non-coronavirus patients to help clear out hospital space for people suffering from the virus, but that did little to help because a large majority of patients crowding hospital wards were positive for Covid-19.

The Javits Center began accepting patients with coronavirus on Saturday, and President Donald Trump agreed Monday that the Comfort would begin taking them as well.

The Comfort is staffed by 1,000 medical personnel, while Javits has a medical staff of 917.

Although Javits has been taking coronavirus patients since the weekend, its beds have not yet filled up. Major General William Hall, the commander of Joint Task Force Civil Support, said communication issues between hospitals and the feds were to blame.

“The communication at that transition was difficult. The good news is we’ve worked past that,” he said.

The military is now sending teams of doctors and nurses to local hospitals to facilitate the transfer of patients.

“As we are on the ground and better understand the New York City health system and hospital system, in the last 48 hours the level of communication has grown exponentially to understand the need,” he said. “We’re seeing our patient count go up.”

The Comfort plans to accept patients in need of emergency and acute care, while Javits is taking patients who are already on the road to recovery from coronavirus but still need to be hospitalized.

Five patients aboard the ship — who had tested negative for the virus when they were sent there — have since tested positive. It is not clear where they were exposed.

One USNS Comfort crew member has tested positive for Covid-19.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked for both facilities to shift their mission to treating coronavirus patients.

“To be a part of the relief on the pressure on the New York City hospitals, we have to be able to do this,” said Vice Admiral Andrew Lewis, commander of the U.S. Navy's 2nd Fleet. “If we restrict ourselves [to non-coronavirus patients]...we’re not able really to achieve our mission that we were sent here by the president and the secretary of defense to do.”

The crew member who tested positive is in isolation, he said. Doctors and nurses working on the ship are now staying at a local hotel instead of on board.

Apart from the two military hospitals, 325 military doctors, nurses and physician's assistants have arrived in the city and have been deployed to its 11 hard-hit public hospitals. Another 775 are expected in the coming days.