The cathedral, which describes itself as the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, said on Monday that its 600-foot-long nave and equally large subterranean crypt would be turned into an emergency hospital as part of the fight against the pandemic.
Nine climate-controlled medical tents capable of holding a total of at least 200 patients will be erected inside the cathedral by the end of the week, said the Rt. Rev. Clifton Daniel III, the dean of the cathedral.
The City is looking up to the church as hospitals are running out of room for coronavirus patients.
Alternatives such as the USNS Comfort and temporary hospitals in a convention centre and Central Park are proving not to be enough.
According to Anglican.ink, the tentative plan is to set up about 400 hospital beds this week in the nave of the cathedral on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Whether the cathedral will handle COVID-19 cases has not yet been decided.
But it should be accepting patients within 10 days, said Lisa Schubert, the cathedral’s vice president of programming and external relations.
“Everything is happening in real time,” Schubert told Episcopal News Service.
“What we knew a week ago is very different from what we know now.”
The cathedral is partnering with the Mount Sinai hospital network and Samaritan’s Purse, the Christian relief organisation.
The Samaritan’s Purse has set up temporary hospital units in Central Park.
“Use of this sacred space could lessen pressure on New York City’s overburdened health care system, allowing hospitals to devote more care to COVID-19 patients,” the cathedral’s staff said in a statement.
“In the history and tradition of the church, and following the example of Jesus, cathedrals have long served as places of refuge and healing in times of plague and community crisis,” the Rt. Rev. Clifton Daniel III, dean of the cathedral, said.
“The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is stepping up now, as we always have, to help support our diverse and beloved community and the community of doctors, nurses and volunteers risking their health and well-being in the service of the people of New York City in our hour of need.”
By 6 April, the virus had killed at least 2,475 people in New York City, and the death toll will soon exceed that of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the city that killed about 2,700.