March 30, 2020 / By Madeline Holcombe, Holly Yan and Eric Levenson, CNN
(CNN) – New York transformed a grassy meadow in Central Park into a makeshift hospital and welcomed a Navy hospital ship as officials scrambled to bolster a medical system becoming overwhelmed by coronavirus.
Central Park’s East Meadow on the Upper East Side, normally a spot for picnickers and sunbathers, was converted Sunday into a 68-bed field hospital designed as a respiratory care unit. And on Monday morning, the USNS Comfort navigated past the Statue of Liberty into New York Harbor, where it will provide another 1,000 hospital beds. 
“This is like an additional hospital just floated right up to our shores, and now it’s going to help to save lives,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
The Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort passes lower Manhattan on its way to docking in New York, Monday, March 30, 2020.
In addition, the Army Corps of Engineers transformed Manhattan’s Javits Convention Center into a makeshift 1,000-bed field hospital. Gov. Andrew Cuomo set a goal of building a 1,000-plus patient temporary hospital in each of New York City’s five boroughs as well as in nearby Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties.
The makeshift hospitals are a few examples of how New York is using every possible method to expand its capacity head of an expected peak in two to three weeks.