The location will serve as a makeshift hospital with 350 beds for patients who have tested positiveGETTY IMAGES
Former USTA President Katrina Adams called turning the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center into a base of operations to fight coronavirus a "great opportunity for the USTA and our U.S. Open facility to help others." The BJKNTC will serve as a makeshift hospital that will have 350 beds to house patients who have tested positive for coronavirus, but do not need ICU care from nearby Elmhurst Hospital. Calling the USTA "great partners with the city of New York," Adams said, "We will be using the indoor facility where we have 12 indoors courts." She added the commissary at Louis Armstrong Stadium will be used to serve "about 25,000 meals to those in need," including local school children. Tennis Channel's Jon Wertheim said, "If anyone needs proof that this is wartime conditions, we're converting tennis centers into makeshift hospitals" (“Tennis Channel Live,” Tennis Channel, 3/31).
OTHER VENUES CHIPPING IN: In Seattle, Jim Brunner reports the CenturyLink Field Event Center is being converted to an "emergency, 250-bed field hospital to handle a potential overflow of non-COVID-19 patients from area medical centers that could soon be overwhelmed amid the novel coronavirus pandemic." The facility is "expected to be up and running within days, though it’s uncertain when any patients will arrive" (SEATTLE TIMES, 4/2).
