As California was notified that the USNS Mercy Hospital ship is under mandatory maintenance and not available for deployment, the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services and the California Health and Human Services Agency formally requested today the deployment of 500 additional federal medical personnel to staff hospitals, skilled nursing homes and medical surge hospitals.
According to various news reports including USNI News, the ship is unavailable for the next few months.
This request includes 360 DoD medical personnel, 135 United States Health and Human Service Disaster Medical Assistance Team personnel and an additional 50 FEMA personnel, bringing the current federal augmentation request to more than 500 staff, according to the CAL OES Office press release.
"Bringing additional medical staff into the state will allow us to save lives and ensure our hospitals systems are not overstretched," said Governor Newsom in the news release. "Now is the time to use every resources at our disposal to fight the spread of this virus and protect Californians."
The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers has been deployed to SoCal to help with oxygen delivery systems. Newsom said earlier this week the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers have been deployed to seven facilities: five facilities to Los Angeles and two facilities in San Bernardino County.
Last week, Newsom announced the COVID-19 variant, originally found in the UK and then in Colorado, has been detected in Southern California.