Little glimmer of hope in New York despite record number of deaths

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Catherine triumph
France Media Agency

The previous record dated from Saturday, with 630 dead in one day. New York State has now recorded 5,489 deaths since the start of the epidemic, according to its governor Andrew Cuomo, nearly half of the deaths recorded in the whole of the United States.

But local authorities have put forward more encouraging figures, such as the average of new hospitalizations recorded in the last three days, in a state which has some 139,000 people officially infected.

“If you look, the three-day average is down, which is good news,” Cuomo said during his daily press briefing on this crisis.

Projections show that “we are reaching a plateau in the total number of hospitalizations,” said the governor. “We see the increase and we see that it starts to flatten out”.

The mayor of the economic capital of the United States, whose schools and most non-essential activities have been shut down since March 16, also cautiously highlighted some encouraging trends.

“It’s far too early to draw any conclusions”, but “in the last two days something has started to change […], we see a little improvement in the need for ventilators ”, this allows hospitals to“ last longer, ”said Bill de Blasio.

The start of a slowdown in hospitalizations also seems to apply to the greater New York region, which extends to neighboring states of New Jersey and Connecticut, their respective governors, Phil Murphy and Ned Lamont, said Tuesday.

But all these officials also called for especially not to compromise these first positive signs, and to strictly respect the confinement and social distancing measures that have shut down this key region for the American economy.

Mr. Cuomo had extended these measures on Monday until April 29. The governor of New Jersey told him on Tuesday that he would extend the state of health emergency that allows him to extend confinement by one month, and has closed all parks in this state, too many people going for a walk without respecting the distancing.

While many deplore the measures taken in dispersed order by the American states, the three governors indicated that they are working together, in particular on the best testing strategy that will allow, in the weeks and months to come, people who have acquired immunity to the virus. to return to work and revive economic activity.

Soon a cathedral-hospital

These glimmers of hope come as New York has scrambled in recent weeks to increase hospital capacity and obtain more protective equipment and respirators to cope with the influx of patients.

Many hospitals have been turned upside down to make room for additional beds, and tents pitched everywhere, like those erected in Central Park, near one of the large hospitals of the Mount Sinai group.

The Saint-Jean-le-Théologien Cathedral, an impressive Gothic-style building north of Manhattan, was also preparing to transform into a 400-bed hospital on Tuesday.

Volunteers from the Samaritan’s Purse charity were bringing crates containing tents to erect in the nave, AFP said.

“Traditionally, in centuries past, cathedrals were used in this way, like during the plague. So it’s not new […], it’s just new for us, ”said Cathedral Dean Clifton Daniel on the parish’s Twitter account.

The federal government has already helped convert the Javits Center conference center in Manhattan into a hospital.

With a capacity of more than 2,500 beds, the center welcomed 66 patients on Tuesday, according to Vice-Admiral Andrew Lewis of the US Navy.

The Navy also dispatched the impressive military hospital ship last week. USNS Comfort, whose white silhouette now dominates West Manhattan. Forty-four patients were treated there on Tuesday, including five with COVID-19.

Vice-Admiral Lewis confirmed that a crew member of the Comfort had tested positive for the disease, but stressed that he had been placed in solitary confinement and that it would have “no impact on the mission” of the ship.

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