Secaucus Site Will Be Pop-Up Hospital; Will Not House Covid-19

SECAUCUS, NJ — CORRECTION: The pop-up hospital in Secaucus is still scheduled to open, however it will not handle covid-19 cases: It will handle the overflow of other patients from area hospitals. All covid-19/coronavirus patients will be kept in regular hospitals. These four pop-up hospitals across the state will handle the overflow patients moved out of regular hospitals to make way for the expected coronavirus case load.

This important clarification was provided by Secaucus town administrator Gary Jeffas.

The state of New Jersey is opening four "pop-up" hospitals to accommodate the expected influx of coronavirus cases — and one of them will be in Secaucus.

Yes, the Meadowlands Exposition Center, located in the Harmon Meadow section of town, has been selected as a makeshift coronavirus pop-up hospital.

New Jersey knew the pop-up hospitals were coming, but until Tuesday, their locations had not been made available to the public. The sites were announced in a press conference led by Gov. Phil Murphy and New Jersey State Police Colonel Patrick Callahan. Secaucus Mayor Mike Gonnelli confirmed the news, but said it was not clear when exactly it will open. It appears the town of Secaucus had little say in the matter.

"One is going to be at the Meadowlands Exposition Center, another is going to be at the Convention Center in Edison, the third one will be set up in Atlantic City's Convention Center," said Callahan.

The location for the fourth one will be determined at a later time, he said, "once we are able to analyze the best and most effective place to set that up."

Projection studies show that existing hospitals do not have enough beds to hold the expected influx of cases.

The hospitals will be constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers and each is expected to have up to 250 beds. It will be fully staffed by doctors, nurses and pharmacists.

"We know what supplies need, we've have identified the number of staff, the number of RNs, number of pharmacists," said Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli, noting that New Jersey will be divided into three regions: North, Central and South.

Persichilli said they've invited level-1 trauma centers to be coordinating agencies. Hackensack University Medical Center will be the coordinating agency for the Secaucus facility.

In New York, the Jacob Javits Convention Center, SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Old Westbury and the Westchester Convention Center were identified as locations for their makeshift hospitals. New York and New Jersey have experienced many more coronavirus cases than the rest of the nation.

Murphy noted the speed that these facilities were being setup is unprecedented.

With reporting by Russ Crespolini/Morristown Patch