N.Y.’s Javits Center to Add 2,000 Beds to System Under Strain

Construction will begin this week to turn the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan into a 1,000-bed hospital, a first step toward eventually doubling that number, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

The main showroom of the center will be broken up into four 250-bed hospitals each about 40,000 square feet in size, Cuomo said at a briefing Monday at the center. There will be 320 Federal Emergency Management Agency workers assigned to the hospitals.

New Jersey, too, expects to increase patient capacity and is asking FEMA to operate four pop-up hospitals, a step that has support from President ...