The New York City public hospital system tacitly suspended elective surgery earlier this week to free up ward space for coronavirus patients as testing of positivity rates and the number of new cases continues to rise, officials revealed Thursday.
The decision came Tuesday as the city’s average positivity rate continued to rise. On Thursday, that rate was 6 percent for the first time since May, and both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo warned they could take additional lockdown measures by the end of the holiday if the rush of new COVID-19 cases doesn’t. to delay.
“The virus continues to challenge us, infections continue to rise in this city, hospital admissions continue to rise,” de Blasio said on Thursday.
“We have a serious problem here.”
The head of the Health + Hospitals Corporation, Dr. Mitch Katz, also said Gotham’s 11 public hospitals have transferred more than 100 coronavirus patients to other facilities with more space to avoid the sites being overwhelmed by the initial influx.
“We’ve made it clear that the only surgeries we’ll do are those that take them in quickly, like car accidents, or surgeries where someone’s health is directly infected, like when someone has an infection,” added the hospital chief. to it. .
He added that the public hospital system began plans for the non-emergency surgery to be discontinued over the weekend and suspended them on Tuesday.
However, a spokesman for H&H said on Thursday that the state has since updated its capacity criteria for the coronavirus, allowing the public hospital system to resume elective proceedings for the time being.
In total, about two-thirds of the intensive care and traditional hospital beds are currently full.
The revelations came as statistics from the city’s health department revealed that the seven-day mean positivity rate for coronaviruses administered in the five boroughs continued its climb, reaching 6 percent for the first time since May.
And officials said the city now suffers an average of more than 2,700 new cases of COVID-19 every day.
“We still have a long way to go and everyone has to participate,” said de Blasio.
Cuomo echoed those sentiments Thursday morning when asked about the increase in cases at a snowstorm press conference where he again implored New Yorkers not to travel or gather in large groups during the holidays.
“We want to slow the spread, we want to prevent shutdowns and together we can do it,” said the governor.
“How do you slow the spread?” Cuomo continued. “We are smart during the holidays.”