Will 1,000-bed hospital ship sail for Seattle or Los Angeles?

BREMERTON — The Navy hospital ship Mercy, whose 1,000 beds could help alleviate strain on health care providers, is getting reato set sail from San Diego.

The question is: where will it go?   

Crews have five days to get the Mercy ready. Mariners are coming aboard, as are medical teams, Military Sealift Command spokeswoman Sarah Burford confirmed. 

"We will be ready to go, we just don’t know where or when," Burford said.

Gov. Jay Inslee on Thursday called for the ship to come to Seattle, among the hardest-hit areas of the country for COIVD-19. The Washington state Department of Health said  Thursday there are at least 1,376 cases in the state, including at least 74 deaths.

Meanwhile, Inslee Thursday halted all elective surgeries and other non-urgent procedures to conserve critical equipment needed for the coronavirus response.

The same day, California Gov. Gavin Newsom penned a letter to the White House requesting the ship to come to Los Angeles, saying it would “help decompress our current healthcare delivery system."

The hospital ship isn't ideal for quarantining those suffering from an infectious disease. Its benefit is having a moveable, large-scale trauma care ward that can help take the pressure of those acute cases off of area hospitals so they can focus on treating those afflicted with novel coronavirus, Burford said.

There's only one other hospital ship in the fleet, the Norfolk-based USNS Comfort. The White House said earlier this week it would go to New York. 

"Hospital beds are what we need," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted.

Carnival Corp. also said this week it will offer cruise ships for use in response to the crisis.