Auto show floor to become pop-up hospital in N.Y.

The Javits Center, New York City's glass-walled convention hall along the Hudson River, was supposed to be filled with gleaming new cars and trucks next week.

The home of the annual New York auto show, which has been postponed until August, will instead become a 1,000-bed makeshift hospital as the city's health care infrastructure is overrun by the coronavirus pandemic.

The New York National Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers last week began construction of four hospital units on what would have been the auto show's main floor. The units, expected to open as soon as this week, will be staffed by 320 Federal Emergency Management Agency workers.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo hopes to eventually add 1,000 more beds at Javits for less intensive medical care.

"This was never an intended use, but you do what you have to do," Cuomo said at a news conference last week. "That's the New York way. That's the American way."