Momentum appears to be on the side of temporarily using the former Lakeshore Hospital. On Wednesday afternoon, area state officials — Sen. George Borrello and Assemblymen Andrew Goodell and Joe Giglio — urged Gov. Andrew Cuomo to have the site reopened as a medical facility during the coronavirus outbreak.

“Although it is my hope that the aggressive steps taken to date to combat this virus will eliminate the need for any additional hospital beds, it is important to be prepared,” Goodell said on Wednesday. “There are many skilled nurses and other health care professionals who can provide the exceptional and compassionate care that has always characterized Lakeshore hospital. The utilization of this facility could also provide needed financial support to Brooks hospital.”

Social media appears to greatly favor the opening of the site as well, as noted on our OBSERVER Facebook page. The only unfortunate piece in this news, however, was the discarding of equipment from the facility into dumpsters before the Feb. 2 closing.

All those items would have been helpful at this time.