New York cathedral to be used as field hospital

A vast cathedral in central New York is being converted into a field hospital during the coronavirus pandemic, its dean says, as the US struggles to cope with the mounting crisis.

The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in Manhattan will house nine climate-controlled medical tents in its 600-foot-long nave and subterranean crypt, dean Clifton Daniel tells the New York Times.

The tents will be able to hold a total of at least 200 patients beneath the stained-glass windows of the building, which describes itself as the largest Gothic cathedral in the world.

Cathedral officials said COVID-19 patients could start arriving within a week.

The field hospital will be staffed with personnel from the Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital, located next door to the cathedral complex.

— AFP