The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York will serve as a coronavirus field hospital, church officials told The New York Times Monday.
The church, which describes itself as the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, will have at least 200 patients inside under nine climate-controlled medical tents by the end of the week, the Rt. Rev. Clifton Daniel III told the Times.
Daniel, the dean of the cathedral, said it will be the first time the building has served this purpose, adding that it first offered its space last month.
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“The last thing like this was the flu pandemic in 1918, but the world was different then and I don’t think they used the cathedral in this way,” Daniel told the Times.
“But traditionally, in earlier centuries, cathedrals were always used this way, like during the plague,” he said. “So this is not outside the experience of being a cathedral, it is just new to us.”
The cathedral’s crypt will be transformed into “a staging area” for medical personnel, Daniel said.
About 400 beds were delivered to the cathedral last week and three tents sat at the loading dock Monday, James Patterson, the cathedral’s director of facilities and capital projects, told the newspaper. Patients are expected to come by the end of this week or early next week.
It’s unclear if COVID-19 patients will come to the cathedral, but the church leadership is “assuming” so.
The cathedral, located in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights neighborhood, will be staffed by Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital, which sits next door to it.
Patterson said there will be challenges to using the space, such as finding a way to bathe patients.
Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian humanitarian organization, has been involved in developing the cathedral as a field hospital. The group also built a field hospital in Central Park last month.
The virus has struck the city hard, with 68,776 confirmed cases, 15,333 hospitalizations and 2,738 deaths, according to its health department. New York Gov. Andrew CuomoAndrew CuomoOvernight Health Care: US hits 10,000 coronavirus deaths | Trump touts ‘friendly’ talk with Biden on response | Trump dismisses report on hospital shortages as ‘just wrong’ | Cuomo sees possible signs of curve flattening in NY Manhattan cathedral will serve as coronavirus field hospital Trump confronts most difficult week yet in coronavirus battle MORE (D) has been warning about hospitals becoming overwhelmed by the growing number of COVID-19 patients.