In the midst of this pandemic, it seems like stress, paranoia and news consumption has drastically increased in the past month. For those of us living in New York, the current coronavirus epicenter of the world, our mornings may look about the same: something along the lines of a bacon, egg and cheese with a side of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s morning press conference.
The beautiful Wednesday morning of April 1 was met with a staggering statistic claiming that exactly one month ago, March 1, only one death was reported in New York state. Flashforward to this month and we have reported over 1,900 deaths in New York City alone.
According to The New Yorker, the U.S. has over 190,000 cases with over 83,000 of them originating in New York. The state accounts for 45% of the nation’s total cases.
Drastic measures have been put into place as a means of trying to “flatten the curve.” Social distancing and mandatory 14-day quarantines are just the tip of the iceberg, as these rules have been universally enacted. Non-essential workers have been told to work from home until April 15, in the hopes of cases being reduced.
With the number of cases increasing by 4,000 from March 22-23, Cuomo stated, “The apex is higher than we thought and the apex is sooner than we thought.”
Hospitals have been met with an influx of patients that they were not ready to handle. As a result, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio summoned retired doctors to come work in the front lines of the pandemic. Within 24 hours, over 1,000 picked up the call of duty.
Due to the lack of respirators available, Cuomo said that the state would allow patients to share one ventilator using a technique called “splitting,” where a second set of tubes can be attached.
Alongside the lack of medical equipment comes the lack of space to house the infected patients. The first temporary hospital opened March 30 in the Javits Center, which Cuomo said on April 2 “has been turned into a 2,500 bed emergency medical facility run by the U.S. Army.”
The shortage of protective gear has been an ongoing issue. De Blasio says New York City will run out of gear by April if the federal government does not send 3 million N95 masks, 50 million surgical masks, 15,000 ventilators and 45 million surgical gowns, gloves and face shields.
Many New Yorkers have taken matters into their own hands by making masks for themselves and sending them to hospitals nearby. According to the New York Post, an upstate New York couple has donated over 300 masks they made via 3D printer.
In a time of peril and utter chaos such as this, it is important to stay calm and follow the laws the government has placed. A United Nations official stated that it is safe to say that every New Yorker could be infected but could be asymptomatic. With that in mind, let us practice the art of social distancing and regular sanitizing.