New York City’s public hospital system quietly suspended elective surgeries earlier this week to free up space for coronavirus patients as test positivity rates and the number of new cases continue to rise, they revealed Thursday officials.
The decision came on Tuesday, as the city’s average positivity rate continued to rise. On Thursday, that rate reached 6% for the first time since May, and Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned they could order additional closure measures at the end of the holidays if the rush of new COVID cases -19 doesn’t. loosen.
“The virus continues to challenge us, the infection rate continues to rise in this city and hospitalizations continue to rise,” Blasio said Thursday.
“We have a serious problem here.”
The head of the Health + Hospitals Corporation, Dr. Mitch Katz, also said the 11 public hospitals in Gotham have moved more than 100 coronavirus patients to other facilities with more space to prevent the sites from being overflowing by the initial influx.
“We have made it clear that the only surgeries we will perform are those in which they intervene emergently, such as traffic accidents or surgeries in which someone’s health is directly infected, such as when someone has an infection,” the chief added. of hospitals. .
He added that the public hospital system began planning to stop non-emergency surgery over the weekend and had effectively suspended them on Tuesday.
However, an H&H spokesman said Thursday afternoon that the state had updated its capacity criteria for the coronavirus, allowing the public hospital system to resume elective procedures for the time being.
In general, about two-thirds of traditional intensive and traditional care beds are full.
The disclosures came as statistics from the city’s Department of Health revealed that the seven-day average rate of positivity of coronaviruses administered in the five districts continued to rise, reaching 6% for the first time since May.
And officials said the city now makes an average of more than 2,700 new cases of COVID-19 every day.
“We have a long way to go and everyone has to be a part of turning it around,” de Blasio said.
Cuomo echoed those sentiments Thursday morning when asked about the rise in cases during a snowstorm press conference, where he again prayed for New Yorkers not to travel or gather in large groups at the interior during the holidays.
“We want to slow down the spread, we want to avoid stoppages and together we can do it,” the governor said.
“How does the spread decrease?” Cuomo continued. “We’re smart during the holidays.”