Hospitals in New York City are being flooded beyond their capacity. Doctors and nurses are stretching the limited resources available to them and doing the best they can. Every day they struggle to just keep their heads above water, while the numbers of patients entering the hospital system continues to grow.
The sick are arriving so fast that more than 5,000 new beds might be needed for next week. One out of every four Covid-19 patients is in intensive care. The longer a patient stays on a ventilator the more likely they will not live. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order to transfer ventilators from upstate New York to hospitals that have a dire need right now. The New York hospital system has 90,000 beds which are now filled to capacity.
Medical workers are the front line soldiers in this battle against Covid-19. Airbnb is offering $2 million dollars to provide hotel rooms for front line workers in this fight against Covid-19. A surge and flex system was set up to get needed supplies to the communities with the greatest need in New York State. Javits Center, Tents in Central Park, and the Brooklyn Cruise terminal should help with overflow patients as the numbers keep rising. Cuomo stressed over and over that testing is needed on a grand scale to control the spread of the virus. Right now they are just trying to mitigate the damage from letting the virus go unchecked for so long. America has more cases of Covid-19 than any other country in the world. Before anyone can go back to work with any semblance of normalcy, there must be testing.
In New York State, the death toll continues at an astonishing rate.
April 4, 594 died
April 5, 599 died
April 6, 731 died
April 7, 779 died
April 8, 799 died
April 9, 777 died
April 10, 783 died
April11, 758 died
April 12, 671 died
The fact that the death rate leveled off is a somewhat hopeful sign. It indicates that the stay at home order might be turning the tide. However, 7,844 have died to date. New York asked for people to send photos of how their are staying strong though the pandemic and they edited a short video that stresses #Stay Home, #Stop the Spread, #Save Lives.