NY Coronavirus Peak Worse And Coming Sooner Than Expected: Cuomo

NEW YORK, NY — The peak number of cases of the new coronavirus is expected to be higher than initially thought and could be just two weeks away — far earlier than initially predicted, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in a grim update Tuesday. The number of cases stands Tuesday at 25,665 across New York State; there are 3,234 people hospitalized statewide and 756 in ICU, he said.

"The change in circumstances is not encouraging," he said, speaking from the Javits Convention Center — with 5,707 new cases reported Tuesday.

Cuomo said as many as 140,000 hospital beds will be needed, noting the rate of spread is doubling every three days. The state currently has closer to 50,000 hospital beds.

"I will turn this state upside down to get the number of beds we need," he said.

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The spread of the coronavirus, once compared to a freight train, is now likened to a "bullet train," he said. "We are not slowing it and it is accelerating on its own."

Cuomo said he is aggressively exercising all options.

"We haven't flattened the curve. The curve is actually increasing," he said. "In many ways we have exhausted every option available to us."

Cuomo called for the federal government to use the Federal Defense Production Act to get businesses to make equipment.

Cuomo mentioned the new experimental drug therapies beginning today; he also discussed a test for antibodies that could determine if a person has had the virus and recovered with immunity.

The "inescapable" truth is that the apex is accelerating "and sooner than we thought. It is clear that we must dramatically increase hospital capacity" with beds, staff and equipment, Cuomo said.

Even if capacity doubled, that only gives 100,000 beds when New York needs 140,000.

Cuomo is looking not just at sites at the Javits Center, Stony Brook, Westchester and Westbury but at all CUNY and SUNY campuses and at taking over hotels. He's calling on all retired medical professionals to come forward.

And, he said, the need for ventilators is dire. Cuomo said the state is "scouring the globe" and has secured 7,000 ventilators, but New York needs 30,000. "This is a critical and desperate need."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, he said, has sent New York 400 ventilators. "What am I going to do with 400 ventilators? We need 30,000," Cuomo said

He discussed sharing one ventilator with two patients, an experimental concept.

But federal help is essential and said the Federal Defense Production Act, where companies are ordered to produce necessary supplies, needs to be invoked. "Not to exercise that power is inexplicable to me," he said.

The federal government has 20,000 ventilators in its stockpile that should be released immediately to New York, where coronavirus cases are 10 times higher, he said. After New York has reached its apex, those ventilators should be sent to where the need then arises, Cuomo said. "Release the ventilators to New York. New York is the canary in the coal mine."

He then discussed President Donald Trump's ideas on the economy but said: "If you ask the American people to choose between public health and the economy then it's no contest. No American is going to accelerate the economy at the expense of human life."

Cuomo has also about the need not only to address economic viability. He suggested a new approach, based on the theory of risk stratification, might be considered, where those whose coronavirus cases have resolved can go back to work; perhaps the young should not be quarantined with seniors and those who have recovered can go back to work.

America should look to New York, Cuomo said.

"It's higher in New York because it started here first, because we have global travelers coming here first, because we have more density than most places. But you will see this in cities all across the country," Cuomo said. "You will see this in suburban areas all across the country. We are a test case. That's how the nation should look at it. Where we are today, you will be in three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, six weeks. We are your future."

He added: "I'm not asking you to help New York to help New York, I'm asking you to help New York to help yourselves. Let's do it right. And let's learn how to do it right here. And lets learn to act as one nation."

To someone who asked about putting the brakes on the economy with the recovery rate for coronavirus so high, and only the elderly and those with compromised immune systems in danger, Cuomo said the question was "blunt and jarring." He added that some have asked: "'If it's only 1 or 2 percent, and they are old and vulnerable and sick and going to die, anyway, then why stop the train?' But we are not willing to sacrifice that 1 or 2 percent. That is not who we are, not what we are, not what we believe. We are going to fight every way we can to save every life. Because that’s what I think it means to be an American," Cuomo said. "I know that’s what it means to be a New Yorker. I am going to leave no stone unturned. That 1 or 2 percent is Mathilda, or Sally or Jane. It’s your uncle, my uncle. They are precious. And I am not going to give up.”

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