New York Medical Supplies Depleting Fast

 

 

 

In New York City, the epicenter of the US crisis, the death toll from COVID-19 is over 4,500 and continuing to climb.  There have been more than 140,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus discovered in New York, including more than 76,876 in New York City.  Thirty-five percent of the confirmed cases in the US are in the state of New York.  Governor Andrew Cuomo warned state residents to expect a high death rate through July.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is dispatching more than 250 ambulances and 85 refrigerated trucks to New York to serve as temporary morgues.  In Central Park, an emergency field hospital began operations to treat spillover patients from nearby Mount Sinai Hospital.  Mayor Bill de Blasio has repeatedly warned city hospitals are in dire need of millions of masks, hundreds of thousands of gowns and hundreds of ventilators, and are on the brink of running out of supplies.

Following complaints by health care workers about their inability to get tested for the coronavirus despite a colleague recently dying from COVID-19, the Mount Sinai hospital system in New York City will begin providing tests on Tuesday for any employee who shows symptoms of the disease. Mount Sinai will use PCR tests for anyone showing symptoms.  They will also administer a serum antibody test to anyone who was symptomatic.

The Justice Department and Department of Health and Human Services announced that hundreds of thousands of masks and other pieces of medical equipment seized from a Brooklyn man have been distributed to medical workers on the front lines treating novel coronavirus patients in New York and New Jersey.  According to the DOJ, the equipment seized and distributed includes roughly 192,000 N95 respirator masks, nearly 600,000 medical gloves, 130,000 surgical masks, procedure masks, N100 masks, surgical gowns, disinfectant towels, particulate filters, bottles of hand sanitizer and disinfectant spray.  Prosecutors say 43-year-old Baruch Feldheim hoarded the supplies in order to take advantage of the COVID-19 crisis and was selling them to doctors and nurses at prices as much as 700% above market value.

Governor Cuomo said it’s unclear what will happen after New York hits its peak. Cases could begin dropping off or there could be more of a plateau effect, in which new cases and death rates remain flat.  Cuomo said the falling rate of infection will not be met with a slackening of social-distancing measures. Schools and nonessential business will remain closed at least until April 29 and there will be higher fines for people violating social-distancing rules. The maximum fine is now $1,000.