"The state of Mississippi is requesting a military hospital ship to increase capacity for treating a soaring number of COVID-19 patients, something Gov. Tate Reeves failed to acknowledge when the Sun Herald asked him twice Thursday afternoon what he would be asking of the federal government. Instead, ABC News reported the development based on a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services planning document, according to a story Thursday. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs is sounding every alarm he can. He said the state has requested hundreds of nurses, dozens of doctors and and about 200 respiratory therapists. Hospitals are expected to see even more patients as COVID cases climb, reaching a record high of 4,412 on Thursday.

“We’re willing to leave no stone unturned and that includes the USNS Comfort,” Dobbs said during a late-afternoon news conference about UMMC’s field hospital. “The main thing we need is the personnel. Staffing is sort of our main bottleneck. It’s not necessarily that we need the ship, but we need personnel from anywhere we can get them and we will strive to.”

Singing River Health System Lee Bond earlier in the day told Coast business leaders what he saw walking out of the ER a couple nights ago. Ambulances weren’t able to unload patients, people were on stretchers in the hallway, people were gasping for air in the waiting room, “just sheer misery. I wondered to myself, is this what it might look like in a world war?”

https://www.nola.com/article_b5d8e9f0-fc34-11eb-b8d7-8b5b53a5bcb7.html