NYC is asking community spaces to sign up as possible emergency management centers
Photo by Daniel Schludi on Unsplash
With four sites already identified as temporary hospitals–and construction underway on the largest, the Javits Center–the city is now looking for additional spaces that can be used to support NYC Emergency Management. The call is for community spaces with a large interior room such as community centers, places of worship, or campus facilities that can be utilized for outreach, training, or gathering during an emergency or as a disaster recovery center. Though it’s not explicitly stated, NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson noted on Twitter that some of these spaces could be “suitable for converting to temporary hospital rooms.”
Interested community centers or business owners just have to fill out the Share Your Space Survey with basic information such as occupancy capacity, square footage, number of rooms, ADA compliance, and whether there is a kitchen. In addition to the types of places mentioned previously, other suitable establishments include hotels, parking lots, and stadiums. All of the information will be kept confidential, but it will be compiled by Emergency Management into a database that can be used during the current coronavirus crisis, as well as future emergencies.
Yesterday, 6sqft reported that women’s co-working club The Wing had offered to donate its 70,000-square-feet of available space for coronavirus relief efforts in New York. The Wing’s spaces have operational kitchens and showers. “If it’s a space for relief workers, at-risk women, homeless families–anything,” wrote founder Audrey Gelman on Twitter.
The temporary, 1,000-bed FEMA hospital at the Javits Center is expected to be complete within a week to 10 days. In addition, the Army Corps of Engineers will erect temporary hospitals at the Westchester County Center, SUNY Stony Brook, and SUNY Old Westbury.
As of this morning, New York State had 25,665 confirmed cases of COVID-19, an increase of nearly 5,000 since yesterday. There were roughly 15,000 confirmed cases in NYC.
