NY Coronavirus: Elective Surgeries Returning To Some Hospitals

NEW YORK, NY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday said he would allow elective surgeries to return to hospitals in places where the new coronavirus risk is low as the state continued to see the number of coronavirus-related deaths and hospitalizations fall. Hospitals will be able to resume performing elective outpatient treatments on April 28 if hospital capacity stays over 25 percent for the county and as long as there have been fewer than 10 new hospitalizations in the county over the past 10 days, Cuomo's office said. Moreover, patients must test negative for the COVID-19 disease prior to any elective outpatient treatment.

"As New York continues to flatten the curve of new COVID-19 infections, we are now ready to lift the restrictions on elective surgeries in regions where hospital capacity and the rate of new infections do not present a significant risk of a surge in new positive cases," Cuomo said. "It is essential that we continue to support hospitals and health care workers in all regions to ensure they have both capacity and supplies to treat COVID patients because this virus is by no means defeated."

Restrictions on elective surgery will remain in place in Bronx, Queens, Rockland, Nassau, Clinton, Yates, Westchester, Albany, Richmond, Schuyler, Kings, Suffolk, New York, Dutchess, Sullivan, Ulster, Erie, Orange and Rensselaer Counties.

On Monday, 481 more New Yorkers died of the new coronavirus — 452 in hospitals and 29 in nursing homes, the governor said. In western New York, 125 people died. The state confirmed,4178 new cases Monday, bringing the statewide total to 251,690.

Hospitalizations continued to trend downward, falling to 16,076, while the net change in hospitalizations ticked up slightly to minus 27 from minus 110. The number of new, daily COVID-19 hospitalizations fell to 1,308 Monday after peaking at over 3,100 earlier in the month.

Intubations also continued to fall, dropping to minus 127 from minus 32.

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Cuomo on Tuesday shed more light on how the New York economy would restart, detailing the regions that he will use to make the decision. Downstate regions include Long Island, New York City and Mid-Hudson. The other regions: Western New York, Finger Lakes, Central New York, Southern Tier, North Country, Mohawk Valley and Capital District.

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will coordinate Western New York's public health and reopening strategy, and former Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy will volunteer as a special advisor to coordinate the Finger Lakes' public health and reopening strategy.

Cuomo acknowledged and validated New Yorkers complaints about delays in receiving unemployment benefits, but appeared to downplay the overall impact it would have on their lives, calling it "annoying."

"You’re getting the same benefit anyways," he said. "It’s not like it’s costing you money."

Cuomo noted that 1,000 people are working on the state's unemployment website and phone system, which he said "collapsed" due to the overwhelming number of claims. The workers cannot keep up with volume of calls.

The Governor also announced he will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday to discuss testing.

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