Three Men Die While Quarantining At Times Square Hotel, City Says

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Three men died in the span of one weekend while living at a Midtown Manhattan hotel following their release from city hospitals after being treated for the new coronavirus, city officials said.

New York City is launching a "full review" into the men's deaths at the West 37th Street Hilton Garden Inn, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this week. The mayor, who called the deaths "tragic," also said that additional medical staff to hotels being used as transitional homes for people who are discharged from hospitals after recovering from the coronavirus.

"You'd think if someone has been discharged from the hospital, it's an all clear and the reason they're in a hotel is simply transitional, particularly if they happen to have a family situation that's not conducive to go back to or something like that. But we're going to add additional personnel to ensure that everyone is being very closely watched and supported," de Blasio said.

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The three men were discharged from three different hospitals — the Bronx's Montefiore Medical Center, Brooklyn's Maimonides Medical Center and Harlem Hospital — which means there isn't much to connect the deaths, de Blasio said. Two men were found dead in their rooms on Saturday by hotel staff and one was found on Sunday, city officials said. The men have not been identified.

"If they were all discharged and all from different hospitals, something doesn't make sense here... So we're doing a full review to understand that," de Blasio said during a Monday press briefing.

New York City has set aside 11,000 vacant hotel rooms for healthcare workers, people who need to quarantine and the city's homeless population during the outbreak of the new coronavirus. People are sent to the facilities on a transitional basis after recovering from coronavirus if they may be at risk or may risk the health of others by returning home too quickly, city officials said.

Additional medical staff being directed to the quarantine hotels will check on people following their discharge from the hospital to ensure that they are fully recovered from the virus.

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