De Blasio: All NYC hospital beds could be full of coronavirus patients
Every hospital bed in New York City may be converted to treat COVID-19 infected patients, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.
“We project that potentially all of those beds, all 20,000, will have to be turned into intensive care beds to focus on COVID-19 patients who are really, really sick,” de Blasio said on NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday.
“That gives you a sense of just how abnormal it could be,” de Blasio said.
As of Monday night, 20 percent of the city’s 38,087 coronavirus cases were hospitalized. Of those 7,741 patients, 1,700 were in the ICU. Over 900 people have died from the virus. Just a week earlier, the city had 13,119 cases, with 2,213 hospitalizations and 525 ICU patients. At that time there were only 125 deaths.
“What we’re seeing is a sharp upturn over the last days,” de Blasio said.
“We have to look at this pattern and conclude that the worst is certainly in the next few weeks — minimum — I can see it going into May,” the mayor warned.
The surge in coronavirus cases “will require a level of hospital capacity we’ve never seen, we’ve never conceived of. We’re talking about tripling hospital to be able to handle this,” de Blasio said.
Field hospitals, such as the one in Central Park that will open Tuesday, will treat COVID-19 and other patients once the hospitals are full.
The USNS Comfort, which docked on Manhattan’s west side Monday, will start accepting non-coronavirus patients immediately.
De Blasio ripped clueless New Yorkers who gathered around the pier to watch the ship’s arrival, as he held a press conference heralding the arrival just a few feet away.
“That’s unacceptable,” he said about those who ignored guidance to stay six feet away from others in public to prevent the spread of the deadly bug.
“As we love the Comfort, love the fact that the military is here, people must practice social distancing,” de Blasio said.
“I’ve authorized our police to give out fines, $250, $500 fines to people who don’t get it because anybody who’s not social distancing at this point actually is putting other people in danger,” de Blasio said.
On Monday, a dozen cops stationed around the pier did nothing to disperse the crowds until the mayor’s press secretary, Freddi Goldstein, saw media coverage of the potentially dangerous situation and alerted police to move people along.