The nonprofit group Samaritan’s Purse is dismanteling a field hospital they set up in New York’s Central Park to treat COVID-19 victims (TIMOTHY A. CLARY)

New York (AFP) – An emergency field hospital in New York’s Central Park started to be dismantled Monday, with the city past the worst of its coronavirus epidemic, as a temporary hospital was opened in Washington DC in case of a jump in infections there.

Evangelical Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse set up the temporary park hospital, with 68 beds and ten ventilators, in late March as New York geared up for the peak of its COVID-19 outbreak.

The tented facility — erected opposite Mount Sinai hospital on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue — treated 190 COVID-19 patients, the last of which was discharged on May 5, a spokeswoman for the charity told AFP.

The site became a symbol of New York’s transformation to fight the virus outbreak, which has killed around 20,000 people across the Big Apple.

But it also proved controversial, with LGBT groups pointing out that staff and volunteers are required to sign a “statement of faith” stressing that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

The organization is run by prominent evangelical leader Franklin Graham, the son of late evangelist pastor Billy Graham.

Several New York politicians and activists had called for hospital to be taken down.

Samaritan’s Purse maintains that it doesn’t discriminate against people it seeks to help.

On Monday, volunteers began to pack up the dozen or so tents and other medical equipment which will be returned to a Samaritan’s Purse warehouse in North Carolina.

Meanwhile some 230 miles (370 kilometers) from New York, in the US capital, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser inaugurated a separate temporary hospital at the sprawling Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

The site, built by the Army Corps of Engineers and operated by the MedStar Washington Hospital Center, has 437 beds.

“Our hope is that as Washingtonians continue working together to blunt the spread of COVID-19, we never get to the point of needing to use this site. 

“But if we end up needing additional hospital capacity, these beds are here and ready for patients,” she said.

Bowser is expected to announce later this week whether she is going to extend a confinement order past Friday.

COVID-19 has killed 328 people in the federal capital, out of 6,300 confirmed cases.

Disclaimer: Validity of the above story is for 7 Days from original date of publishing. Source: AFP.