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Coronavirus Updates: NYC Will Run Out Of Medical Supplies In 2-3 Weeks, De Blasio Says
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Mar 19, 2020
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Mayor Bill de Blasio / Flickr
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Mar 19, 2020
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This is our daily update of breaking COVID-19 news for Thursday, March 19th, 2020. Previous daily updates can be found here. Our guide to preparing for the spread of coronavirus is here, and if you have lingering questions about the virus, here is our regularly updated coronavirus FAQ. Here are some local and state hotlines for more information: NYC: 311; NY State Hotline: 888-364-3065; NJ State Hotline: 800-222-1222.
Here are some related stories you might want to read:
• Here's how some New Yorkers are finding ways to help one another through the crisis.
• Governor Cuomo's streaming press briefing music has become the soundtrack of coronavirus.
• The Metropolitan Opera has laid off its musicians and chorus.
9:30 p.m. As of Thursday evening, there are 3,954 positive cases of coronavirus. At least 26 people have died.
6:15 p.m. Following a precipitous rise in confirmed coronavirus cases, Mayor de Blasio on Thursday made a desperate plea to President Trump to send in medical supplies and the military to assist New York City in what is expected to be a massive surge of coronavirus patients.
The mayor said the city had two to three weeks before it would run out of critical medical supplies. He said the military, with its tactical expertise and medical personnel, was the city's only hope.
"We alone cannot solve this crisis," he said, during his press conference. "I need people to hear that not to create fear but to level with people."
At one point, he warned that President Trump risked becoming the "Herbert Hoover" of his generation, a reference to the president who took office when the Great Depression began and who was blamed for a lack of a sufficient response. On Wednesday, Trump said he had dispatched an 894-foot hospital ship called the Comfort to New York harbor. The ship, which has 1,000 beds, could be used to free up hospital beds in Manhattan. But it was later reported that the ship was undergoing maintenance and will not arrive until April.
As of Thursday morning, there were 3,615 confirmed cases of in New York City. At least 22 people have died from the disease, a startling increase of 11 overnight.
The number of hospitalizations has also continued to climb. As of Wednesday, there were 554 people hospitalized. Of those, 169 were in intensive care units.
Thursday's press conference was the first one the mayor delivered in City Hall without the presence of a press, a precautionary measure that will continue until further notice. He began by delivering a roughly hour-long introductory statement, which he prefaced as the "blunt truth" for New Yorkers. It included reading off a list of the staggering number of supplies the city is requested from the federal government: three million N95 masks, 50 million surgical masks, 15,000 ventilators. The list also includes surgical gowns, coveralls, gloves and face masks, for which the city is seeking 25 million of every item.
In one good piece of news, a call out to all retired and private doctors and nurses across the country to volunteer during the crisis has been successful. The mayor said 1,700 people to date had already come forward.
The city is already in the midst of a massive shutdown and restrictions, but it has stopped short of a full lockdown that was implemented in countries like China and Italy. Mayor de Blasio has instead urged the governor to consider a shelter-in-place order that the San Francisco Bay area has adopted, but Cuomo has resisted, saying the term would frighten people.
Cuomo has also diverged from de Blasio on the issue of federal support. The governor said Thursday that he had meetings with federal officials and had spoken with President Trump, who he said pledged to help. The Army Corps of Engineers are already in the state looking for potential sites for hospitals, according to Cuomo.
Asked about his dispute with Cuomo, de Blasio said he planned to speak to him later today. He added that he believed that the governor has handled the crisis well.
In absence of a shelter-in-place rule, the city is pleading with New Yorkers to stay at home as much as possible.
"Social distancing is the single most important tool that we have to combat this onslaught of COVID-19," said Dr. Oxiris Barbot, the city's normally composed health commissioner who choked up while translating her message in Spanish.
Like Cuomo, de Blasio has leaned heavily on the metaphor of war in recent days.
"The front is here in New York City," he said.
Second City Councilmember Infected With Coronavirus
Inez Barron
New York City Council /Flicker
3:15 p.m. Brooklyn City Councilmember Inez Barron has tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the second known city-elected official to contract the disease. On Tuesday, Bronx City Council member Ritchie Torres tweeted that he had tested positive for the virus.
The news about Barron was announced in a press release from the City Council.
Barron's husband, Assemblymember Charles Barron, had previously tested positive for the virus. She was said to have already self-isolated as a precaution, as did her staff.
Her district office is now closed but continuing to conduct operations via telecommuting.
"I join each and every one of my colleagues in praying for the speedy recovery of our friend and colleague Inez and her husband Charles," said City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, in a statement.
The Council's offices at City Hall and 250 Broadway have been closed since Monday due to coronavirus concerns.
NYC Expands Free COVID-19 Testing Across The Five Boroughs
2:30 p.m. New York City announced a large expansion of testing for COVID-19 on Thursday, making the tests available by appointment only across 10 city hospitals, seven community clinics and four drive-through sites.
“If we’re going to curb this epidemic, we need fast and expansive testing for those most at risk for serious illness,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio in a statement.
All of the COVID-19 testing will be provided free of charge.
As of Thursday, there were 3,615 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New York City. At least 22 people have died from the disease in NYC. By borough, there were 980 cases in Queens, 976 in Manhattan, 1030 in Brooklyn, 436 in the Bronx, and 165 in Staten Island.
Of the total infected, 554 people—15 percent—have been hospitalized.
Eight of the ten testing centers at city hospitals are now open for appointments, including Bellevue, Elmhurst, Harlem, Metropolitan, Kings County, Lincoln, Woodhull, and Queens. Testing at Coney Island and Jacobi hospitals will begin next week.
The testing at all the hospitals will be done inside tents, similar to what was used during the H1N1 outbreak in 2009.
Drive-through testing at Jacobi hospital in the Bronx is currently operational. Coney Island Hospital's drive-through is expected to start on Friday. All testing, whether walk-in or drive-through is by appointment-only.
Jacobi will add another drive-through site next week, as will Kings County hospital in Brooklyn.
Each of the 10 centers located at hospitals will be able to test 150 people per day, while the community clinics can accept 50-75 people per day. The four drive through sites will be able to accommodate 100 people per day; New York City now has five drive-through sites, including the state-operated mobile drive-thru facility on Staten Island, which opened today.
BioReference, a testing lab which has partnered with the city, will collect the samples for the tests. Testing capacity is expected to ramp up to 5,000 per day, with a one-to-two day turnaround for results.
But in a sign that health officials are expecting overwhelming demand, the city is now asking New Yorkers with mild illness, under 50 and with no underlying health conditions, to continue to stay home, and only call their doctor if their symptoms do not subside in 3-4 days.
NY Homeowners Affected By COVID-19 Crisis Get Mortgage Payment Reprieve
Governor Andrew Cuomo / Flickr
1:45 p.m. New York homeowners who are out of work or on reduced hours as a result of the coronavirus crisis will have their mortgage payments waived for three months.
“That will be a real economic benefit. It will also be a stress reliever for many families," Governor Andrew Cuomo said during his press conference in which he announced the temporary measure.
Under the directive, banks must waive mortgage payments based on financial hardships, provide a grace period for loan modification, and postpone or suspend foreclosures. Borrowers will be granted a grace period for loan modification. In addition, the waiving of mortgage payments, which they will still have to pay but over a longer period of time, will not result in a negative credit report.
In a press release, the state said that state chartered banks will also be asked to waive ATM fees, late fees, overdraft fees and fees for credits cards "to help lessen the financial hardship of the COVID-19 pandemic on New Yorkers."
For tenants affected by the coronavirus crisis, state courts over the weekend issued a moratorium on eviction proceedings at the residential and commercial level. Pending housing court orders across the state have also been temporarily halted.
Meanwhile, Democratic state legislators Brad Hoylman and Brian Kavanagh have introduced legislation prohibiting landlords from evicting tenants without a court order. It also seeks to grant the courts new powers to stop evictions, foreclosures—and “adjust lease obligations” for those impacted by a disaster.
Cuomo Further Reduces Level Of Non-Essential Employees Showing Up To Work
11:30 a.m. Taking yet another step to reduce density, Governor Andrew Cuomo will now order non-essential businesses to bring down the number of employees who leave their homes for work to 25 percent.
The measure comes only one day after Cuomo said he would cut the in-person workforce to 50 percent. That order was set to take effect on Friday and will now be superseded by the new order. As with the prior policy, it would not apply to individuals who work in food, pharmacies, healthcare, media, shipping, and supplies.
With expanded testing, the number of recorded cases have skyrocketed. As of Thursday morning, the number of confirmed cases in New York state is now 4,152. Of those, 2,469 are in New York City.
Cuomo's latest response fell short of a shelter-in-place order, which Mayor Bill de Blasio has urged him to consider. But the governor has held firm, saying the term incites fear.
Pressed on the issue during a press conference, however, he described the restrictions on businesses as "virtually the same."
Throughout the crisis, the governor has alternated between frank honesty about the pending catastrophe that will result from an overwhelmed hospital system and repeated urgings for New Yorkers to stay calm.
Yet with footage of college students partying on a Floria beach during spring break going viral, there are concerns that many people are not taking the pandemic serious enough. On Tuesday in South Williamsburg, members of the city's Fire Department had to break up a Hasidic wedding that drew more than 200 people. Meanwhile, health officials have sounded the alarm about infections in the Crown Heights Orthodox Jewish community, where more than 300 people have reported symptoms.
On Thursday, Cuomo invited his younger daughter, Michaela Kennedy-Cuomo, to the press conference to serve as an example. A senior at Brown University, Cuomo's daughter had elected to cancel her spring break plans. With a slight roll of her eyes, on her father's prompting, she repeated the advice he always gave her as a child: "Risk reward."
Referring to the spring break revelers, the governor said, "This is so unintelligent and reckless, I can’t even begin to express it."
Still, Cuomo argued that many New Yorkers are panicking. He spoke of a hysterical New York City businessman who told him the city would be quarantined and blocked off.
"When you get that emotional, that fearful, you literally don’t process information the same way," he said. "We’re acting on facts rather than fear. I believe communication is important. I believe words are important. Say what you mean and don't alarm people."
NYC Asks Elon Musk To Send Ventilators
Elon Musk
Susan Walsh/AP/Shutterstock
10:31 a.m. Mayor de Blasio on Thursday reached out to Tesla founder Elon Musk for help with the city's ventilator shortage. The mayor has said that the city has roughly 5,000 ventilators, but as coronavirus cases skyrockets, hospitals are expecting to run out. Governor Andrew Cuomo has said that the state will need 30,000 ventilators to cope with an anticipated surge in patients suffering from COVID-19 symptoms.
Costing at least $20,000, ventilators are essential to help patients with respiratory problems breathe.
Late Wednesday night, in response to calls for him to repurpose his factory to produce ventilators, Musk agreed, saying, "We will make ventilators if there is a shortage." He then asked which hospitals were in need.
Musk's interest comes after President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act, a law which now allows the federal government to order manufacturers to produce medical equipment in high demand for coronavirus patients.
Cuomo Says 'Shelter-In-Place' Reminds Him Too Much Of Nuclear War
An eerily empty Rockefeller Center skating rink earlier this week.
Scott Lynch / Gothamist
With the rate of recorded coronavirus cases showing no sign of slowing, Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing increasing pressure to adopt more stringent measures, in particular, a shelter-in-place rule that would compel New Yorkers to stay at home except for essential work or activities.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has urged the governor to consider the measure in New York City, saying that it is working in the San Francisco Bay area, where seven million people are being forced to comply for three weeks. Supermarkets, pharmacies, banks and gas stations have remained open, as well as essential government functions. And thus far, compliance has been generally strong.
"What I see is the need to really tighten up and really try and knock down the speed with which this epidemic is emerging," de Blasio said on Wednesday night. He added that he was having "productive" conversations with Cuomo about the concept.
In public, however, there are no indications that Cuomo is there yet.
Speaking on back-to-back television shows Thursday morning, the governor was repeatedly asked if he would use the policy. The state is likely to surpass 3,000 confirmed cases very soon. Overnight, New York performed 8,000 tests, a record for the state.
The governor has increasingly likened the battle against coronavirus to a war, saying that the disease is certain to overwhelm the state's hospital system. But Cuomo has nonetheless drawn the line against shelter-in-place, which he argued was too reminiscent of the Cold War era.
"You’re scaring the heck out of me," he said on MSNBC. "Yes, density reduction, yes, stay inside, yes, social distancing, but communicate in a way that is comforting to people that are already panicked."
Pressed again on CNN, he said, "Look at your words? Shelter-in-place. That came from nuclear war."
He added: "Now, that's not what people really mean. But that's what it sounds like."
Tagged
covid-19 updates
coronavirus
Elizabeth Kim
Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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