Little-used Navy hospital ship Comfort leaves New York after treating COVID-19 patients

The U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort heads past lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center building under heavy fog as it leaves to return to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia, after treating patients during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City, New York, U.S., April 30, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar

(Reuters) - The U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort departed New York harbour 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 epicentre for COVID-19 infections.