Cuomo Pitches Aqueduct as Potential Temporary Hospital

New York State is looking to build a 1,000-bed emergency hospital at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens to try to help the region accommodate an expected surge of COVID-19 patients in the coming weeks.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pitched the idea March 27 at an event in where he opened a temporary hospital facility in a sprawling convention center in mid-town Manhattan. He has asked the federal government for authority to build an additional four hospitals in the city's other four boroughs to try to ensure that "everyone is being helped and is being protected."

The number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in New York City has soared above 26,000; 450 people have died there. The newly proposed facilities would open, pending federal okay, sometime in April.

The New York Racing Association suspended racing at Aqueduct on March 20 after a backstretch worker at Belmont Park tested positive for COVID-19. By March 26, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 of backstretch staff had grown to six. Queens has the most cases of the virus in New York City.

NYRA officials offered to help with the hospital construction effort.

"We welcome the opportunity for Aqueduct Racetrack to serve as a safe haven for those recovering from this virus, recognizing that we must all work together as a community to meet this challenge and emerge stronger for it,'' said NYRA president and CEO Dave O'Rourke.

The NYRA chief said the racing corporation "also joins the governor in extending our deepest gratitude to the first responders, medical professionals and volunteers who continue to operate on the front lines of the battle against COVID-19.''

The Queens racetrack has already been serving as a coronavirus mobile testing site. NYRA's properties are no strangers to being put into service for emergencies. After the 2001 terrorist attacks, Belmont Park was a staging area for some emergency operations by responders at the World Trade Center complex. After Superstorm Sandy in 2012, Aqueduct's parking lot was used by the American Red Cross for a mobile feeding kitchen operation.