STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo continued his push to increase the state’s hospital capacity on Monday, mandating that all New York hospitals up their number of beds by 50% as the system prepares to deal with the worst of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
With a current capacity of about 53,000 beds and needs estimates as high as 110,000, he said that doubling the number of beds in each hospital would be ideal, but that might not be feasible.
“If they increased the capacity 100%, that solves the mathematical projection,” he said at his Monday morning press briefing. "I think it’s unreasonable to say to every hospital, ‘basically double your capacity.’ I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say ‘try to reach 50% increase.'”
A spokesperson for Staten Island University Hospital said they’ve been working to identify parts of the hospital that can be converted to treat critical care patients, discharging patients to free up capacity, and cancelling elective surgery to reduce the hospital’s volume of patients. He did not say whether they will be able to meet the capacity.
Dr. Philip Otterbeck, the chairman of medicine at Richmond University Medical Center, said the West Brighton hospital has also been working to meet the governor’s mandate.
“We certainly will be meeting this standard and are actually assessing how we can exceed these expectations so we can better assist the people of Staten Island during this time,” he said.
As of Monday morning, there were 20,875 cases statewide with 12,305 in city, and 157 deaths in the state. The two Staten Island hospitals told the Advance/SILive.com Monday that they were aware of 12 deaths on the borough caused by the virus.
In addition to increasing hospital capacity, both Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have sounded the alarm on supplies and called for market intervention from the federal government for things like masks, gloves, and, particularly, ventilators.
In a pair of morning TV interviews, de Blasio said that the city’s public hospital system could be overwhelmed by the end of the week if it doesn’t get more supplies.
“I want to see 100s of ventilators. I want to see first 100s of thousands then millions of masks,” he said on CNN’s New Day. “If that doesn’t come in starting this week, we will we get to a point where people can’t be saved who could’ve been saved.”
The mayor said he has made appeals to the president, Vice President Mike Pence, and members of the private sector for ventilators needed in the city.
A cacophony of Democrats, including Cuomo and the party’s congressional delegation, have called on the president to use the powers granted by the federal Defense Production Act to mandate private industry to shift its production focus to what the nation needs to fight the virus.
Trump announced Wednesday that he would invoke the act, but has yet to make any use of it.
“The fact that I signed it, it’s in effect,” he said at his Sunday press briefing. “But you know, we’re a country not based on nationalizing our business.”
In 2017, the president sent a letter to Congress to notify that he would be using certain powers granted by the act to “rectify a shortfall in the space industrial base.”
Both Cuomo and de Blasio said Monday that leaving the allocation of resources to the free market and private industry has led to bidding wars among different localities. Cuomo shared statistics that the state has secured over a million pieces of equipment with hundreds of thousands being allocated to New York City.
“We have made certain strides, but this is not the way to do it. This is AD HOC. I’m competing with other states. I’m bidding up other states on the prices,” Cuomo said.
“I understand the voluntary private-public sector partnership, and there are a lot of good companies who are coming forward and saying ‘let us help,’” he continued. "But it can’t just be ‘hey who wants to help, let me know.’ We need to know what the numbers of what we need produced and who is going to produce that and when.”
With New York having the highest number of cases and deaths in the nation -- spurred, in part, by conducting a quarter of the nation’s tests -- Cuomo said the most obvious need for resources is in the Empire State.
Cuomo also continued his calls for more retired healthcare workers to voluntarily rejoin the workforce as the state prepares to deal with the toll the virus will have on the healthcare system.
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