The state of New York (USA) has already registered 524 cases of coronavirus and its first death related to the disease, an 82-year-old woman who was hospitalized for emphysema, as reported by Governor Andrew Cuomo on Saturday.
As he also highlighted that the number of positives in the area will continue to increase due to the increased capacity to test.
‘There is an increase of 100 compared to yesterday. We have carried out 700 tests. The number of positives depends on the tests: the more tests, the more the number will rise. No one believes that there are only half a thousand cases in New York, we believe that there are thousands of people, perhaps tens of thousands. Most of the cases detected are thanks to detectives who have followed the positives that were already there, ‘Cuomo explained in a conference call.
The governor also announced the first Covid-19-related death: an 82-year-old woman who died Friday night at a New York City hospital and had been in hospital since March 3 for emphysema.
Cuomo tried to relativize the death by posing “how many people over 80 years of age with previous respiratory diseases have died from the flu,” adding that “this virus is basically pneumonia.”
The state opened its first mobile test center in the town of New Rochelle on Thursday, a focus of coronavirus in the area and in which residents have priority, but the authorities are already planning to open a second laboratory of this type, which is accessed with the vehicle, at the end of next week in the municipalities of Long Island or Jones Beach, as announced by Cuomo.
Of the more than half a thousand cases registered in the state, around 20% are hospitalized, and in this regard the governor declared that he was ‘concerned’ about the health system’s ability to cope with new positives and especially the seriously ill, since that there are some 50,000 beds available and some 3,000 intensive care (ICU), some of which are already occupied.
‘We have to try to reduce the rate of spread to a level that can manage our hospital capacity. If the propagation rate is very high, we cannot manage it (…). We are concerned and have spoken to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence about this: the rate of infection can be massive, ‘he said.
He criticized that the ability to test in the United States “has been a problem,” but applauded the measure taken yesterday by the government to declare a national emergency, which will tackle that “bottleneck” and allow states “to use their own laboratories. ‘to identify positives and therefore establish quarantines.
In this sense, he stressed that in the “mandatory” quarantines, the authorities “go home daily, they make sure you are there and check your status at random hours”, so “there are civil and potentially criminal fines if violated” that order.
Furthermore, Cuomo announced that he has ordered to eliminate the copayment for ‘telemedicine’ appointments in order to prevent people from going directly to the emergency rooms.
It has also removed the requirement that school-age youth receive 180 days of schooling per year, in addition to leaving the decision to close their schools to the discretion of school districts, regardless of whether there is a positive or not.
From EFE.
