N.Y. Virus Deaths Hit 1,200; Rise in Infections Is Slowing
N.Y. Virus Deaths Hit 1,200; Rise in Infections Is Slowing
(Bloomberg) -- New York State reported a 26% increase in Covid-19-related deaths in the last day, pushing the total above 1,200.
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the 253 new coronavirus fatalities on Monday even as he offered some positive news: The rise in confirmed cases is slowing, and the hospital-discharge rate is rising.
“People come into the hospital, they stay for a period of time, a number of days, and then they move on,” Cuomo said.
Even so, there was still no clear pattern in the data. While the doubling of infections has slowed to every six days from every two, the number of people who had to be moved into intensive care with intubation surged in one day.
New York added almost 7,000 confirmed infections overnight, for a total of more than 66,000, Cuomo said. Of those, roughly 9,500 are hospitalized, an increase of more than 1,000, and about 2,350 were in intensive care, up 315.
Roughly 37,500 of the positive cases are in New York City, up about 3,700 since a day earlier.
Cuomo, at a news conference in Manhattan, continued to press Washington for more help to get more ventilators and other medical equipment, seizing on President Donald Trump’s description of the outbreak as a war.
“This is a war. Let’s act that way,” he said. “And let’s act that way now, and let’s show a commonality and a mutuality and a unity that this country hasn’t seen in decades, because the Lord knows we need it today more than ever before.”
To increase hospital capacity in New York City, temporary facilities are being added. The Jacob Javits Convention Center will begin operating on Monday as an emergency hospital with 2,500 beds, Cuomo said. Earlier in the day, Cuomo and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio welcomed the USNS Comfort to New York Harbor, adding 1,000 more beds.
Both facilities are being used to treat non-Covid-19 patients, to free up beds in regular hospitals to treat those stricken with the virus.
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