Cuomo: New York State close to plateau in new deaths from coronavirusBy Vera Chinese, David Reich-Hale and Scott Eidler
https://www.newsday.com/news/health/coronavirus/gov-andrew-m-cuomo-the-coronavirus-1.43666531
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Sunday that new deaths from the coronavirus are possibly plateauing in New York State and the number of patients leaving hospitals is increasing.
As of Sunday, Cuomo said, there have been 122,031 coronavirus cases and 4,149 deaths related to the disease.
Cuomo sounded a note of cautious optimism at signs that the state’s level of confirmed cases could be approaching or even be past its peak. The past 24 hours saw 594 deaths, a decrease from the record 630 reported Friday. About 12,000 people in New York have been discharged from hospital care — 74% of all cases — with 1,700 discharged in one day, the governor said.
“We could be very nearly near the apex and we could be beyond the plateau right now,” Cuomo said in his daily update on the pandemic Sunday morning. “The coronavirus is truly a vicious and effective killer at what the virus does … We are all watching a movie and we are waiting to see what the next scene is.”
He said that as the number of cases have surged across Nassau County and the rest of Long Island, fewer new cases are being reported in New York City. He again reiterated Sunday that more assistance in the form of medical personnel and supplies is needed.
“People of Nassau can’t handle it alone,” the governor said.
On Saturday, Cuomo described the growing number of COVID-19 hospitalizations on Long Island as “like a fire spreading.” Nassau also gained the grim distinction Saturday as the county with the most cases nationwide outside the five boroughs of New York City.
In the past two weeks, the percentage of state coronavirus hospitalizations on Long Island rose to 22% from 15%, as the proportion from New York City declined, the governor said Saturday.
In a rare piece of good news Sunday, a Northwell Health spokesman said the system has seen a leveling off in the number of COVID-19 patients at its hospitals.
“We were at about 3,100 patients on Friday, so it’s slowed a little,” Lynam said. “We had been going up by about 300 per day.”
Lynam said Northwell hospitals are close to 90 percent capacity, although Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Long Island Jewish Forest Hills and Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson are at capacity. Mather has received patients from areas that have experienced an overflow of COVID-19 patients.
Queens and western Nassau have remained hot spots, although “this is everywhere,” Lyman said.
The New Hyde Park-based hospital system on Friday released guidelines for rationing ventilators to “patients most likely to benefit,” according to a Politico story.
But Northwell Health Chief Executive Officer Michael Dowling, speaking Sunday on CBS’ “Face The Nation,” said the system had not yet reached the point where rationing is needed.
“The policy that you referenced is a draft policy,” Dowling told host Margaret Brennan. “It is something that we like to prepare for the inevitability. In case that we ever have to do something in the future, you have to have a policy prepared well in advance.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also speaking on “Face the Nation,” warned that new cases will escalate across the country this week with the national apex remaining eight to nine days away. Still, when new cases begin to stabilize, as they are in New York City, he said “that’s the first sign of that plateau and coming down.”
“So just buckle down, continue to mitigate, continue to do the physical separation,” he said. “Because we got to get through this week that’s coming up … it is going to be a bad week.”
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