Cuomo Says NYS Hospitals Dangerously Close To Overwhelm

 

Governor Andrew Cuomo is warning that new cases of COVID-19 are making the hospital systems dangerously close to being overwhelmed.

According to the Governor the daily coronavirus hospitalizations statewide are nearly quadruple what they were in June.  Cuomo said he was more concerned about the staff shortage than I am the number of hospital beds.  Towards that end he is  preparing to recruit retired doctors and nurses to the front lines again.

The governor wants every hospital in the state to begin compiling a list of retired doctors and nurses that they can draw from because there are already staffing issues in some areas, Cuomo said.

In the thick of the horror March 23, the state’s daily coronavirus hospitalization rate hit 3,500 — the same as Sunday, said Gareth Rhodes, special counsel to the state Department of Financial Services, at the press conference.

By comparison, in June, that figure was down to about 900.

“We lived this nightmare, we learned from this nightmare, and we’re going to correct for the lessons we learned during this nightmare,” he said.

The state’s positive test rate — which the governor has called a key indicator of worrisome surges — hit 4.57 percent Sunday, the highest since around mid-May.

“It’s a new phase in the war against COVID,” Cuomo said