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arrow A healthcare professional cries in front of Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, a safety-net hospital in Brooklyn, April 7, 2021. Vanessa Carvalho/Shutterstock
When COVID-19 swept through the Rockaway peninsula last spring, St. John’s Episcopal Hospital was alone to weather the storm. Those who live nearby suffer disproportionately from conditions like diabetes, obesity, and hypertension that make people more vulnerable to severe cases of COVID-19, and St. John’s has been the sole medical center serving the isolated beach community since Peninsula Hospital closed in 2012. After the pandemic hit, St. John’s quickly tripled its ICU capacity but was still pushed to its limits as the virus overwhelmed Queens.