Responding to Coronavirus

Samaritan’s Purse has served in Jesus’ Name to bring physical and spiritual relief to people suffering during this pandemic, which has has killed more than 2 million people worldwide. In the United States alone, more than 490,000 residents have died from COVID-19, and the total number of positive cases has surpassed 27 million.

Our teams wrapped up work at our Emergency Field Hospital in Southern California in Los Angeles County on Feb. 18. An airlift on Monday, Jan. 11, brought the medical equipment needed, and tents were transported across the country by a Samaritan's Purse tractor trailer. The 54-bed mobile unit was located in the parking lot of Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster.

Franklin Graham traveled there on Jan. 13 to see final preparations before our Emergency Field Hospital soon opened. Speaking to our DART (disaster assistance response team), Graham encouraged them: “Remember, we are here for one purpose: To lift up the Name of Jesus Christ. We want to love the people of this community with God’s love.”

Our field hospital in Lancaster treated those who were COVID-positive but did not need the support of a ventilator. In total, we served 167 patients.

Samaritan's Purse also operated an Emergency Field Hospital in Lenoir, North Carolina, to support five regional healthcare systems that were reaching capacity due to rising coronavirus hospitalizations. The hospital, which was open from Jan. 7-Feb. 3, was set up on the grounds of Caldwell UNC Health Care and staffed by our Disaster Assistance Response Team, including doctors, nurses, and other healthcare specialists.

“This is our home state, and we appreciate the frontline workers battling COVID day in and day out. We are glad that we can be there to help lift the load. Our medical team is going to help provide professional, compassionate, and quality care to every patient who is sent to us,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse.

The mobile unit in California was the fifth Emergency Field Hospital Samaritan’s Purse has deployed since the beginning of the global pandemic early last year. Our DC-8 cargo jet airlifted disaster relief personnel and tons of medical equipment in order to open field hospitals and care for COVID-19 patients in Italy and the Bahamas. In New York City, we set up a medical facility in East Meadow in Central Park.

In addition to our Emergency Field Hospital deployments, Samaritan’s Purse country offices and global affiliates have launched new efforts or adapted projects to support people who are suffering during this global pandemic. We have also partnered with organizations in more than a dozen additional countries to meet further needs.