To address the latest wave of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, Mayor Eric Adams unveiled a new contingency plan focused on three axes to ensure city hospitals get the resources they need.
One of them is the capital injection of 27 million in financing in loans to the hospital network that will serve as a safety net, this while 75 percent of the inpatient beds in the five boroughs are full.
“It would be a great help for us, my daughter, people who do not have jobs, I think it would benefit us,” said a New Yorker.
The second axis: 111 million dollars will be allocated to the Health and Hospitals Corporation for the purchase of everything from protective equipment to medical supplies, essential workers’ salaries, virus detection tests and administrative efforts and distribution of vaccines.
“The $ 111 million of # COVID19 funds secured by @NYCMayor Adams will help @NYCHealthSystem secure the staff needed to care for New Yorkers during the #Omicron surge and provide relief to our #HealthCareHeroes on the front lines of the pandemic for nearly two years, “Dr. Mitch Katz, president of NYC’s public health system, @NYCHealthSystem, wrote in a social media message.
The $111M of #COVID19 funding secured by @NYCMayor Adams will help @NYCHealthSystem secure necessary staff to care for NYers during the #Omicron surge and provide relief to our #HealthCareHeroes on the front lines of the pandemic for nearly two years: https://t.co/prDcUoTRxe pic.twitter.com/3loIIpgy79
— Mitch Katz, MD (@DrKatzNYCHH) January 6, 2022
Adams said these sums already support more than 2,000 hospitals with more than 26,000 patients, but some New Yorkers like Eva – who has been out of work for two months – say they are insufficient.
“They should give more money to the hospitals because we are too large a population and in these difficult cases many people like me are going through without jobs and if the mayor does not listen, please give more help to the hospitals.”
Others say that although the figure seems small for a city of 8 and a half million inhabitants, it constitutes an effort that they appreciate, especially to care for their co-workers who have been infected.
The third axis of the mayor’s plan will be precisely to hire more staff.
“It’s something, because this is dominating the city, it’s horrible. Where I work, it’s a school and the teachers are falling one after the other with this,” said Eva León.
The crisis is even more acute at the state level. There have been 10,000 hospitalizations, the highest level since May 2020.
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