NEW YORK - In order to address the new surge of coronavirus cases that is straining the capacity of the hospitals in the borough, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo shared on Monday that the state will be reopening an emergency hospital on Staten Island.
The said announcement is another indicator that New York City is on the edge of the second wave of COVID-19 which has also led the public schools to close, postponement of numerous reopenings, and warnings that were sent to the families to scale back their Thanksgiving plans.
It also reminded some of the individuals in the state about their experienced darkest days way back in March And April.
The governor emphasized during a daily news briefing that Staten Island is a problem.
Numerous hospitalization in the borough rose to an estimated three times in the past three weeks, to 91 on Sunday from only 33 on November 2, having no indications that the pace of the cases will be slowing according to the Governor, The New York Times reported.
Cuomo mentioned the significance of the increase later in the briefing.
The Governor stated that 'Hospitalization' is a nice way of saying more people die.
Cuomo also added that the neighborhoods on the South Shore of Staten Island had an average of seven positive test rates and it was unacceptably high, specifically 5.55 in Great Kill and 5.89% in Tottenville.
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The elevation on the rates had prompted the officials to mark the southern portion of the island as 'orange zone,' making the area the second-most restrictive state in the state's targeted approach in addressing coronavirus clusters, Daily Mail reported.
The remaining portion of the island stays as a yellow zone, an area having fewer restrictions.
The orange-zone designation means a reintroduction of various restrictions imposed during the initial wave of the global health crisis, which includes the closure of indoor dining, salons, and gyms; houses of worship have a limit of only 33% capacity or just 25 people, and gatherings cannot exceed 10 individuals.
Mr. Cuomo shared that the emergency unit on Staten Island will be at the South Beach Psychiatric Center, as they will begin taking in coronavirus patients after officials at Richmond University Medical Center and Staten Island University Hospital mentioned that they were already running short on beds.
According to NBC News, the mentioned unit at the psychiatric hospital was one of the several emergency facilities that were set up in the State earlier this year in order to treat COVID-19 positive patients as the pandemic overwhelmed the hospitals in the city.
A spokesperson for Northwell Health, which operates Staten Island University Hospital shared that the Staten Island Unit treated an estimated 250 patients from the middle of April until June.
The said unit is also expected to accept convalescing coronavirus patients as early as Tuesday and was already prepared to cater to around 100 patients but they can extend up to 200 patients if they have to according to the spokesperson.
Staten Island borough president, James Oddo shared that he was not surprised that part of the South Shore was being tagged as an orange zone.
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