The state of New York, epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, registered 102,863 positive cases this Friday, 10,482 more than yesterday, and 2,935 deaths after observing the largest increase in deaths from one day to the next to date (562 ), as well as hospitalizations.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered the confiscation of respirators from private centers that are not using them to balance the health system.
“Respirators are still a problem; there are not enough, period. Almost all the people who go to the hospital are for coronavirus and the number of patients without COVID-19 has fallen because we do not have the same crime or accident rate. Many go direct to intensive care units (ICU) and need respirators or the process stops, “Cuomo said at a press conference, noting that” the curve continues to go upwards. “
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With more than 100,000 cases, identified thanks to high evidence capacity, New York continues to concentrate the largest burden of the pandemic in the country – where 254,321 positives are recorded – well ahead of its neighboring New Jersey (25,590 cases), from California. (10,995) or Michigan (10,971), and more than half are located in the densely populated New York City (57,159).
This Friday, 14,810 people had been hospitalized throughout the state, 1,427 more than yesterday, and of them 3,731 are in the ICU, which represents an increase of 335 serious patients compared to yesterday, figures that, according to Cuomo, had not been seen until now. . On the other hand, 8,886 people have been discharged, 1,452 in a single day.
The governor drew attention to the overflow of the hospitals and declared that “people are going to die in the short term because they arrive at the hospital and there are no beds with respirators; there are no beds, or there are no personnel, or there are no protective materials, or there is no respirator “, which has led him to sign an executive order so that the centers can” share resources “, avoiding using the word” confiscate “because he considered that it is” very hard “.
“We are dividing respirators, using anesthesia machines … federal inventories are not enough for all states. You cannot buy material. We are still trying to buy from China and we are working with Alibaba (…). We need to redistribute the respirators in The whole system. There are hospitals that have respirators and materials, private sector companies that are not using them, “said Cuomo, who estimates that there are” several hundred “of these devices in disuse.
“We will return or refund them. I cannot do more, but I am not going to let people die having several hundred respirators in the state. I apologize for the difficulties. The National Guard will collect and distribute them,” announced the governor, who He also asked the country’s companies to make an effort and make face masks, hospital gowns, and face protection materials.
Cuomo reiterated that the “normal” workload of hospitals has decreased “dramatically” due to the paralysis of non-essential activities and the recommendation to stay home, as well as the cancellation of non-serious surgeries, which has led to reorganization The huge field hospital established at the 2,500-bed Manhattan Javits Convention Center to serve only COVID-19 patients, but ruled out the same thing happening with the Armed Forces hospital ship Comfort.
The ship is treating about twenty patients when it has the capacity for several hundred, to which Cuomo commented that the position of the Navy is that it is directed only at “patients without COVID-19” because, as it interpreted, “it would be very difficult to disinfect it later”.
