Hotels, college dorms and convention centers could soon house those suffering from the coronavirus.
"We want to go into existing facilities primarily," explained Army Corps of Engineers Commander Lt. Gen. Todd T. Semonite during a briefing at the Pentagon Friday. "These hotels are empty, the people don't have jobs. We would go in and cut a contract to be able to have the state set up a lease with that facility and then we would then take the building over in a period of exceptionally short days and then we would go in and turn this into an ICU like facility."
Part of transformation would include having the Army Corps of Engineers going into the facility to modify the rooms, changing the pressure in hotel rooms, placing supplies in the rooms, and also creating nurse stations. Semonite said it would be up to the states to staff the medical facilities.
The Army Corps of Engineers conducted several site visits this week at locations throughout New York, to include Javits Center in Manhattan and SUNY campuses in the area.
On military installations, senior commanders are being tasked with preparing their bases to handle infected troops.
"Every senior commander on his installation back here in the continental united states has to create isolation facilities and self-quarantine facilities," said Ryan D. McCarthy, secretary of the Army.
"You have to go find those facilities, some are empty barracks, some are other facilities on each of these installations so that when people do come back from overseas because we do have people returning from overseas so they can go to self-quarantine if they exhibit symptoms we can keep some units together so they go to same dining facility but they are isolated from the general population on post and off post."
Army officials also announced all of the service's recruiting stations are now closing.
Gen. James McConville, chief of staff of the Army, said they will move to “virtual” recruiting, wooing recruits more aggressively through a variety of social media sites and other online activities. He said the shutdown is “happening right now as we speak," and may continue through the weekend.
The move comes as the Army works to recover from recruiting shortfalls and struggles in recent years, prompting leaders to develop more programs to reach young people online.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said it's not yet clear how long the shutdown will last, saying the service will take things day by day.
“It's all going to depend on duration” of the new virus, he said, adding that the Army was having a good recruiting year so far.
The Army met its enlistment goal in 2019, after failing to hit recruiting numbers a year earlier, for the first time in 13 years. The target goal for recruits was lowered from 76,500 in 2018 to about 68,000 last year.