Cuomo Says Hospitals at the Center of Fight Against Covid-19

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo put hospitals front and center Monday in the “war” against the Covid-19 epidemic, citing staffing as a chief concern and requiring  hospitals to increase their capacity by 50 percent.

In a wide-ranging press conference, Cuomo said the Covid-19 vaccine is coming but not as quickly as many people expect. “The vaccine will end the war but it will not be ready for distribution in the time frame you think it is. It’s not going to be next week.”
 
He also said the Covid-19 infection rate will likely surpass previous rates. The bulk of new infections is coming from small social events in homes, not bars or restaurants, which are now limited in capacidty and said reducing the spread depends on individuals. “It’s the small, at-home gatherings, living room gatherings. We are social beings  and when you close down social venues, we’ll just find another place to socialize. How does government enforce that?,” Cuomo said. “All you can do is educate people. Either they’re goig to see those numbers going up and they get it or not.”
 
Schools, he said, should remain open, with testing plans, and that the hospitalization rate, and not just the infection rate, could change whether areas are labeled red or orange zones. Those labels then affect the limitations on how businesses operate. Two areas of Long Island are currently designated as yellow zones because of high infection rates.
 

He repeatedly cited Elmhurst Hospital in Queens as an example of how hospitals can be overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients and said that a repeat of that needed to be avoided through reallocation of resources, such as distributing patients to other facilities or sharing of staff across systems.

“I’m more concerned about staffing shortages than beds. The beds we can build, thought it’s extraordinarily difficult and expensive. We can’t create more staff and the staff is starting tired.” Noting that thousands of out-of-state medical workers came to New York in the spring when the state was the epicenter of the epidemic, Cuomo said, “They’re all busy” because of the epidemic’s spread throughout the country. “They’re all busy in their own communities. I’m very worried about staffing You manage it by raising the pool of staff as large as you can. You balance the (patient) load across the state and by doing everything you can to reduce the spread. The good news is that we know what we’re dealing with this time in a way we didn’t know in the sprign. We’re better prepared and smarter in managing it.”

Cuomo also said that of  the 148,974 tests reported Sunday, 6,819 were positive (4.57% of total). Total hospitalizations are at 3,532. Another 54 COVID deaths were recorded, including four in Suffolk County.

County

Total Positive

New Positive

Albany

5,816

104

Allegany

1,042

23

Broome

5,367

59

Cattaraugus

1,135

21

Cayuga

890

21

Chautauqua

1,580

18

Chemung

3,087

39

Chenango

643

4

Clinton

461

2

Columbia

1,027

7

Cortland

1,061

17

Delaware

363

4

Dutchess

7,284

87

Erie

25,427

485

Essex

286

1

Franklin

266

0

Fulton

508

13

Genesee

1,028

31

Greene

695

7

Hamilton

46

1

Herkimer

709

18

Jefferson

566

15

Lewis

368

8

Livingston

714

14

Madison

951

7

Monroe

15,660

522

Montgomery

494

10

Nassau

60,701

520

Niagara

3,874

106

NYC

311,979

2,504

Oneida

4,970

109

Onondaga

10,804

103

Ontario

1,326

22

Orange

16,891

90

Orleans

630

7

Oswego

1,625

54

Otsego

632

14

Putnam

2,844

55

Rensselaer

1,746

26

Rockland

21,632

130

Saratoga

2,293

48

Schenectady

2,481

38

Schoharie

197

1

Schuyler

316

2

Seneca

309

14

St. Lawrence

850

28

Steuben

1,797

26

Suffolk

61,072

658

Sullivan

2,202

11

Tioga

1,149

17

Tompkins

1,118

13

Ulster

3,381

56

Warren

583

6

Washington

452

3

Wayne

1,148

21

Westchester

50,693

583

Wyoming

546

13

Yates

265

3

 

Yesterday, 54 New Yorkers died due to COVID-19 in New York State, bringing the total to 26,747. A geographic breakdown is as follows, by county of residence:

  

Deaths by County of Residence

County

New Deaths

Albany

1

Bronx

6

Broome

2

Chemung

7

Columbia

1

Dutchess

1

Erie

10

Kings

4

Manhattan

2

Monroe

1

Nassau

1

Oneida

1

Onondaga

1

Orange

1

Rockland

1

Saratoga

1

St. Lawrence

1

Suffolk

4

Tioga

2

Ulster

1

Wayne

1

Westchester

1

Wyoming

2

Yates

1

In New York City making an announcement. Watch Live: https://t.co/BKMAuCzA5S

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) November 30, 2020


 

 

FOCUS ZONE

11/8- 11/14 % Positive

11/15- 11/21 % Positive

Day Prior 7-day Rolling Average

Yesterday 7-day Rolling Average

Current 7-day Rolling average

Nassau-Great Neck-Yellow-zone focus area % positive

3.69%

3.69%

3.01%

3.93%

4.34%

 

 

Nassau Massapequa Park -Yellow-zone focus area % positive

4.64%

4.15%

4.76%

5.12%

5.54%

 

 

Suffolk-Hampton Bays-Yellow-zone focus area % positive

9.26%

5.69%

6.28%

7.00%

6.68%

 

 

Suffolk-Riverhead-Yellow-zone focus area % positive

4.80%

4.85%

3.37%

3.49%

2.87%

 

Leave a Reply