Mt Sinai To Use Lobbies For Coronavirus Patient Rooms: Report

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Mount Sinai Hospital is converting public spaces at its main Upper East Side campus into small patient pods as the system anticipates a flood of coronavirus patients in the coming days and weeks, according to reports and an internal email.

Doctors at Mount Sinai shared photos of construction taking place in the hospital's Guggenheim Pavillion lobbies Thursday with CBS reporter David Begnaud. The report included a copy of an email sent to staff from Mount Sinai President David Reich saying that the measure was being taken to "meet the growing volume of patients" suffering from coronavirus. The new patient areas may be up and running within a week, according to the email.

A Mount Sinai spokesperson did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment.

The number of cases of the new coronavirus in New York City passed 20,000 Wednesday as Mayor Bill de Blasio warned half of his 8 million constituents can expect to get it. City and state health officials have said that about 80% of people who become infected with coronavirus will not need prolonged hospitalization.

New York State has lost 385 people — 281 of whom died in New York City — since the outbreak first began to be charted in early March, city and state data show. Mount Sinai West nurse Kious Kelly died of the disease Tuesday.

Kelly tested positive for the coronavirus two weeks ago and was admitted to Mount Sinai's flagship hospital on the Upper East Side last week, hospital workers told the New York Post.