Little-used Navy hospital ship Comfort leaves New York after treating COVID-19 patients

The U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort heads past lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center building under heavy fog as it leaves to return to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, after treating patients during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City New York, U.S., April 30, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar

The U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort departed New York harbor on Thursday, just a month after arriving to help ease the strain on overburdened city hospitals dealing with the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The 1,000-bed Navy vessel, headed back to its home base in Norfolk, Virginia, never neared its capacity, even as the city quickly became the world's epicenter for COVID-19 infections.

The vessel, painted a gleaming white with red crosses, was a symbol of hope when it arrived on March 30 to cheers from the docks. It was intended to absorb an anticipated crush of patients that, under the most dire projections, could have overwhelmed hospitals.

The U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort heads past lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center building under heavy fog as it leaves to return to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, after treating patients during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City New York, U.S., April 30, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

But the extra capacity was never needed, with the feared capacity issues staved off by stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures. Over the past month, confirmed cases in New York have leveled off and it now has about 12,000 hospitalizations.

The commander of the United States Northern Command, Terrence O'Shaughnessy, told reporters at the pier that while the ship's departure was a welcome sign that conditions in New York were improving, there were still over 680 military healthcare personnel deployed in hospitals and elsewhere.

"The hospitals... have the capacity, they just don't have the staff," he said.

Police officers from the NYPD salute as the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort departs Pier 90 in Manhattan under heavy fog to return to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, after treating patients during the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in New York City New York, U.S., April 30, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

New York City health commissioner Deanne Criswell said she would review whether the Comfort had been necessary for the COVID-19 response.

"We didn't know where we were going to go with the amount of patients that were going to need to be seen at the hospitals and the level of severity," she said.

"We're gonna have a lot of time to kind of look at the things that we would have done differently, especially as we continue with the response, prepare for recovery, and potentially what might come in the fall and as we keep hearing about a potential second wave."

A man standing at the Brooklyn end of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge waves a United States flag as the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort departs New York to return to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, after treating patients during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City, New York, U.S., April 30, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

New York City has suffered some 13,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic.

(Reporting by Hussein Waaile, Andrew Hofstetter and Soren Larson; Writing by Diane Craft; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

Spectators on the New Jersey shoreline take pictures as the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort departs Manhattan and passes lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center building under heavy fog as it leaves to return to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, after treating New York City area patients during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as seen from Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S., April 30, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

The U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort departs Manhattan's Pier 90 to return to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, after treating patients during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City New York, U.S., April 30, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar

Police officers from the NYPD salute as the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort departs Pier 90 in Manhattan to return to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, after treating patients during the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in New York City New York, U.S., April 30, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

The U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort departs Manhattan's Pier 90 under heavy fog to return to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, after treating patients during the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in New York City New York, U.S., April 30, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar