If New York’s hospitals are overwhelmed, state could shut down again, says Cuomo

New York – If New York’s hospitals are overwhelmed with too many coronavirus patients, the state could revert to a widespread shutdown like what it saw in the spring, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today.

“We are now worried about overwhelming the hospital system,” Cuomo said at a press conference in New York. “We lived through this nightmare. We learned from this nightmare. And we’re going to correct the lessons we’ve learned.

Cuomo has not suggested a shutdown is imminent. The state cluster area-based approach remains in place. This implies different levels of restrictions in the targeted areas which are experiencing increasing spread of the virus.

But monitoring the state’s hospital system will be a top priority in the state’s approach to tackling the coronavirus pandemic for winter, which Cuomo described today.

READ MORE: CNY hospitals struggle to cope with record increase in Covid-19 patients

He has yet to detail the new hospital settings, but said they would arrive this week. They will be added to the existing list of factors the state uses to impose yellow, orange and red cluster zones, including positive test rates and cases per 100,000 population.

Once in place, the new metrics will track the rate of hospitalizations in a given area, the death rate, the case rate, available hospital beds, available intensive care unit beds, available staff, and the amount of protective equipment available to hospitals. The state will also monitor the efficiency of hospitals in managing patient loads.

A total of 3,532 people were hospitalized with the virus in New York on Sunday, up from 160. Hospitalizations are at their highest level since late May and have increased by nearly 700% since early September.

Hospitalizations are still well below their peak of more than 18,000 in mid-April. But Cuomo said he expects the numbers to continue rising until mid-January due to the holiday season.

He also noted that hospitalizations were increasing statewide. Stress is not isolated in New York as it largely was earlier this year.

“We will have a limited ability to bring resources from the north to the north of the state like we did in the spring, or from the north to the north of the state because literally every region is facing a hospital problem now”, did he declare.

In addition to the new measures, the state’s health department is ordering a variety of new measures that hospitals must take to prepare for the expected increase in patient numbers.

• Institutions need to start identifying retired doctors and nurses who could help relieve existing staff.
• Elective surgeries are canceled in Erie County as of Friday. Cuomo said the hospital situation in Erie County is the most critical in the state.
• Facilities should prepare plans for emergency field hospitals, should plan to increase their bed capacity by 50%, prepare to staff emergency field hospitals, and confirm that they have sufficient nursing equipment. protection in their stocks.
• Hospital networks with multiple sites must also begin distributing patients to relieve stressed facilities. All hospitals should be prepared to begin transferring and accepting patients from across the state if necessary.

The state had previously ordered several of these steps during the height of the pandemic in the spring, including mandatory increases in bed capacity and plans to recruit retirees. Some hospitals in upstate New York also took in patients from busy lower-state sites at the time.

In addition to actions on hospitals, other aspects of the state’s winter virus plan include continuing work to increase testing, keeping schools safe and open through testing and a distribution plan. vaccines.

Cuomo also said the state will launch a new public education campaign on the danger of small social gatherings in homes, which it has called the greatest current risk of spreading the virus. He compared the campaign to the state’s efforts in the spring to get New Yorkers to wear masks.

“Small gatherings are difficult. It is not about the application of the law by the government, ”he said. “It’s about being smart.”

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