Esper: Pentagon To Act As ‘Gapfiller’ For Cities Hit Hardest By COVID-19, Readying Assistance For New York, Seattle

摘要

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday he has received requests from several governors seeking military assistance in their response to managing the coronavirus outbreak, with the Pentagon readying to send military field hospitals to Seattle and New York City pending final guidance from FEMA. Esper told reporters he sees the department serving as a temporary gapfiller for the hardest hit cities, with the goal of assisting civilian hospitals while the Army Corps of Engineers works to convert larger spaces into ICU-like facilities. “We have a number of expeditionary field hospitals and medical units on prepare-to-deploy orders that will be moving out this week. The Army Corps of Engineers is also set to begin work to convert hotels, dormitories and other buildings into temporary medical facilities across the country,” Esper said. “We clearly can’t meet everyone’s needs with everything that we have in our inventory, so we rely on FEMA to do the assessment, validation and then the prioritization.” The Pentagon currently has five medical units under prepare-to-deploy orders, and would likely deploy Army field hospitals under FEMA guidance capable of offering 248 beds, hospital equipment and medical professionals for assistance.