ASTORIA, QUEENS — Mount Sinai Queens started building a triage tent Thursday to expand its emergency department to handle the city's growing number of COVID-19 patients.

Triage tents, which are also going up outside at least six other hospitals across the Mount Sinai network, help health care workers limit the spread of the new coronavirus between patients and staff and expand hospital capacity during the pandemic, according to a Mount Sinai spokesperson. "As the growing COVID-19 crisis unfolds, we are taking extraordinary measures to protect and serve our communities, including erecting triage tents outside of emergency departments throughout our hospital system to expand emergency department services," Mount Sinai Senior Director of Media Lucia L. Lee said in an emailed statement.

"These steps, along with other efforts including instituting strict visitor restrictions, banning staff travel and broadening access to virtual care options through video visits with emergency medicine physicians are important steps to ensure the health of all of our patients, staff and local communities," Lee said. To keep up to date with coronavirus developments in Astoria, sign up for Patch's news alerts and newsletter.

