A military hospital ship for COVID patients won’t come to MS, Reeves says. What now?
FEMA has denied Mississippi’s request for a military hospital ship to treat COVID-19 patients, Gov. Tate Reeves said during a news conference Friday, conceding the state wanted the USNS Comfort as much for the 550 medical personnel aboard as anything.
Reeves said FEMA administrators told him during a conversation Thursday that the ship was used early in the pandemic in New York but treated very few patients. The ship also is better used out at sea.
The ship treated only 182 patients in New York in the spring of 2020, ABC news reported.
State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs had mentioned Thursday that the federal government was unlikely to send a hospital ship to Mississippi during the height of hurricane season.
The state also has requested almost 1,000 federal medical personnel because of a severe shortage of nurses and respiratory therapists as COVID-19 cases reach new heights with the spread of the delta variant.
The military ship was one of a number of requests the state has made to deal with a crush of patients that have filled hospitals and ICUS.
In addition to medical personnel, the state has requested 150 ventilators from the national stockpile, having sent 13 from its own supply to an unnamed hospital on Friday, state officials said.
This story was originally published August 13, 2021 at 2:30 PM.
