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.