Grim photos show the inside of a 68-bed field hospital set up in Central Park to treat coronavirus patients from overstretched Mount Sinai as cases in NYC continue to surge (20 Pics)

New photos show the grim interior of a field hospital erected in Central Park to provide care for critically ill coronavirus patients as the death toll in New York City climbs toward 1,000. 

Workers are currently setting up triage tents outside six hospitals in the Mount Sinai system to create more space for COVID-19 patients.  

One of the sites is located on Central Park's East Meadow lawn, right across the street from Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan's Upper East Side. 

Photos taken inside that 68-bed facility on Monday show rows of simple white cots each with a single blue pillow, spaced out a few feet apart down either side of the tents.    

New York City remains the epicenter of the US coronavirus pandemic, with 36,221 confirmed cases and 790 deaths as of Monday afternoon. 

Hospitals in the city have been struggling to keep up with the exploding number of critical patients, prompting many to expand to temporary facilities.  

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New photos show the grim interior of a field hospital erected in Central Park to provide care for coronavirus patients

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Simple white cots are seen lined up inside one of the tents on Central Park's East Meadow lawn on Monday

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Workers are setting up triage tents outside six hospitals in the Mount Sinai system to create more space for COVID-19 patients

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Volunteers are seen setting up ventilators in a tent that will serve as an intensive care unit on Monday

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The East Meadow site is located across the street from Mount Sinai Hospital by Fifth Avenue

The East Meadow site is being set up with help from Samaritan's Purse, an evangelical Christian relief organization headed by Franklin Graham, son of the late televangelist Billy Graham.

On Sunday, the group trucked in four trailers of equipment and gear, including tents, beds, personal protective equipment and 10 ventilators to treat the sickest patients.

A team of 70 healthcare workers from around the US are now on the scene unpacking those supplies and distributing them into tents. 

The team is led by Elliott Tenpenny, a physician who's previously tended to Ebola patients in West Africa, Syrian refugees in Iraq and earthquake victims in Ecuador.

'There's lots of cases here in New York and a lot of people that need help,' Tenpenny said. 'The hospitals all over the city are filling up and they need as much help as they can get. That's why we're here.'  

He told the New York Post: 'I never would have guessed we'd come to New York City with something like this. But New York never thought it would be dealing with a pandemic, either.' 

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The East Meadow site is being set up with help from Samaritan's Purse, an evangelical Christian relief organization headed by Franklin Graham (right), son of the late televangelist Billy Graham 

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Volunteers are seen unpacking a mountain of equipment provided by Samaritan's Purse on Monday

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Mount Sinai anticipated that the triage tent set-up on Central Park's East Meadow lawn would take about two days to finish

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A volunteer is seen setting up an air conditioning unit at the East Meadow site on Monday

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Each of the tents is lined with simple white cots sitting on a tarp covering the grass underneath

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Medical equipment is seen stacked on a bed in the intensive care unit

Mount Sinai announced plans to erect temporary facilities outside six of its hospitals last week. 

'The tents will be critical in helping us limit the spread of the disease between patients and staff,' hospital officials said in a statement, adding that they will expand the emergency room 'footprint'.  

The site in East Meadow, which is typically populated by sunbathers and dog-walkers, is located near the emergency room for Mt Sinai Hospital by Fifth Avenue.  

Tents are also being put up outside Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Lower Manhattan, Mount Sinai West on 59th Street,  Mount Sinai Morningside on the Upper West Side, Mount Sinai Brooklyn, and Mount Sinai South Nassau on Long Island. 

The field hospitals for Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside are also located in Central Park. 

Mount Sinai West made headlines earlier this month after a photo emerged of three of its nurses wearing black garbage bags as makeshift gowns amid a dire shortage of personal protective equipment. 

One of its nurses, 48-year-old Kious Kelly, died at the hospital after contracting coronavirus last Tuesday.  

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Samaritan's Purse trucked in four trailers of equipment and gear, including tents, beds, personal protective equipment and 10 ventilators to treat the sickest patients on Sunday

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A team of 70 healthcare workers from around the US are now unpacking supplies and distributing them into tents

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Tents are also being put up outside Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Lower Manhattan, Mount Sinai West on 59th Street, Mount Sinai Morningside on the Upper West Side, Mount Sinai Brooklyn, and Mount Sinai South Nassau on Long Island 

In addition to a shortage of space within New York City hospitals, several are also struggling to keep shifts fully staffed as doctors and nurses fall ill from the virus. 

On Monday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo begged healthcare workers from other states to 'come and help us now'. 

Speaking at the Javits Center, a makeshift 2,500-bed hospital in Manhattan that will begin accepting patients on Monday, Cuomo said: 'The front line of the battle is in the healthcare system. That is where this battle is fought. It's that simple. You know exactly where the enemy is going to attack.'

He called the doctors and nurses 'the soldiers' of the war on coronavirus, then went on: 'We need to recruit more healthcare workers. Share healthcare professionals, within this state and within this country, as governor of NY I am asking healthcare professionals across the country; if you don't have a crisis in your community, please come help us in NY now.

'We need relief. We need relief for nurses working 12 hour shifts one after the other after the other. Please, and we will return the favor.' 

Cuomo's plea came as experts say New York could reach its peak of new coronavirus cases within the next seven to 10 days as the daily statewide death toll shows signs it is leveling out and the number of hospital ER visits starts to decrease. 

The death toll in New York state - the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States - increased by 253 to 1,218 fatal cases on Monday, according to new state figures.   

It comes after the rate of deaths spiked 40 percent on Saturday with 247 new cases, bringing the death toll to 782. 

The death toll dipped considerably in terms of new fatal cases on Sunday after recording a 23 percent increase with 183 deaths.

Monday's 253 new cases showed an increase of 26 percent in the number statewide deaths.