Posted on March 25, 2020
March 22, 2020 – Washington – Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Friday sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper requesting that the USNS Dianne FeinsteinMercy hospital ship be deployed to the Port of Los Angeles.
“I write to respectfully request that you consider immediately deploying the USNS Mercy to the port of Los Angeles to help relieve our current health care system in response to the coronavirus outbreak,” wrote Senator Feinstein.
“The USNS Mercy would help relieve our state’s health care system by allowing the Los Angeles region to ensure that it has the capacity to address critical non-infectious acute care needs in addition to the rapid rise in coronavirus cases.”
Full text of the letter is available here and below.
March 20, 2020
The Honorable Dr. Mark T. Esper
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, D.C. 20301-1000
Dear Secretary Esper,
I write to respectfully request that you consider immediately deploying the USNS Mercy to the port of Los Angeles to help relieve our current health care system in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
As you know, California has been disproportionately affected by the federal government’s repatriation of Americans who contracted the virus abroad, which is causing the state’s health care system to become overloaded. In some parts of our state, the case rate is doubling every four days. Moreover, we have community-acquired transmission in 23 counties, with an increase of 44 community-acquired infections over the past 24 hours.
The USNS Mercy would help relieve our state’s health care system by allowing the Los Angeles region to ensure that it has the capacity to address critical non-infectious acute care needs in addition to the rapid rise in coronavirus cases. The population density in the Los Angeles region is similar to that of New York City, where the USNS Comfort is deploying.
I am grateful for your leadership during this challenging time, and I very much appreciate your attention to this request.
Sincerely,
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator
Source: Senator Dianne Feinstein
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