Cuomo Finds Tentative Glimmers Of Hope In Slower NYC Infection, Hospitalization Rates

Reuters: New York Sees Glimmer Of Progress Against Coronavirus, New Orleans Worsens
New York state, leading the nation in coronavirus infections and deaths, is showing tentative signs of curbing the spread of the disease, the governor said on Wednesday, even as fatalities in New York City jumped while the health crisis deepened in hard-hit New Orleans and elsewhere. The rate of hospitalizations in New York has slowed in recent days, Governor Andrew Cuomo said, with numbers he called “almost too good to be true.” He also hailed the enlistment of 40,000 retired nurses, physicians and other medical professionals signing up for a “surge health care force,” but warned much remains to be done. (Caspani and Brooks, 3/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Infection Rate Slows In Onetime Epicenter Of New York’s Coronavirus Outbreak
Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, said the growth of infections in the Westchester County suburb of New Rochelle had slowed. He also said the statewide number of hospitalizations for Covid-19 is growing more slowly. The governor said he believes both were evidence that restrictions on business activity may be working. As of Sunday evening, all nonessential businesses in the state were ordered to close and gatherings of any size were banned. “The evidence suggests that the density-control measures may be working,” Mr. Cuomo said. On Sunday, the number of people hospitalized for Covid-19 was projected to double every two days. As of Tuesday, it was projected to double every 4.7 days. (Vielkind and Brody, 3/25)

Politico: NYC Morgues Near Capacity, DHS Briefing Warns
The Department of Homeland Security has been briefed that New York City’s morgues are nearing capacity, according to a department official and a second person familiar with the situation. Officials were told that morgues in the city are expected to reach capacity next week, per the briefing. A third person familiar with the situation in New York said some of the city’s hospital morgues hit capacity in the past seven days. And a FEMA spokesperson told POLITICO that New York has asked for emergency mortuary assistance. Hawaii and North Carolina have asked for mortuary help as well, and the disaster response agency is currently reviewing the requests, according to the spokesperson. (Swan, Lippman and Eisenberg, 3/25)

The New York Times: 13 Deaths In A Day: An ‘Apocalyptic’ Coronavirus Surge At An N.Y.C. Hospital
In several hours on Tuesday, Dr. Ashley Bray performed chest compressions at Elmhurst Hospital Center on a woman in her 80s, a man in his 60s and a 38-year-old who reminded the doctor of her fiancé. All had tested positive for the coronavirus and had gone into cardiac arrest. All eventually died. Elmhurst, a 545-bed public hospital in Queens, has begun transferring patients not suffering from coronavirus to other hospitals as it moves toward becoming dedicated entirely to the outbreak. Doctors and nurses have struggled to make do with a few dozen ventilators. Calls over a loudspeaker of “Team 700,” the code for when a patient is on the verge of death, come several times a shift. Some have died inside the emergency room while waiting for a bed. (Rothfeld, Sengupta, Goldstein and Rosenthal, 3/25)

CNN: New York Coronavirus: At Least 13 Patients Have Died Over 24 Hours At Elmhurst Hospital
At least 13 patients have died from Covid-19 at Elmhurst Hospital in New York, a statement from a spokesman said, as one of the hardest hit states sees a surge in cases. The deaths of the patients took place over the last 24 hours, but NYC Health and Hospitals/Elmhurst said in a statement that number is consistent with the number of Intensive Care Unit patients being treated there. "Staff are doing everything in our power to save every person who contracts Covid-19," the statement said. (Holcombe, 3/26)

CNN: 'That's When All Hell Broke Loose': Coronavirus Patients Overwhelm US Hospitals 
"We ended up getting our first positive patients -- and that's when all hell broke loose," said one New York City doctor. The doctor, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity out of concern for his job, described a hospital that was woefully unprepared for an influx of Covid-19 patients that started roughly two weeks ago -- which has already stretched the hospital's resources thin and led to severely ill patients outnumbering ventilators. (Nedelman, 3/25)

ABC News: Inside The Coronavirus 'Ground Zero': Elmhurst Hospital In New York City 
In a 24-hour period this week, over a dozen coronavirus patients died at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, New York, as multiple medical workers inside the public hospital told ABC News they are overwhelmed, treating "hundreds of COVID-19 patients." Dr. Colleen Smith, an emergency care physician at the hospital, described the area where the COVID-19 patients are being treated as "a parking lot of stretchers." As one emergency care physician told ABC News plainly, "this is ground zero." The city health department sent out a release on Tuesday, calling the 545-bed hospital in Elmhurst "the center of this crisis." (Folmer and Katersky, 3/25)

Politico: New York Reaches A Coronavirus Breaking Point With Trump
For weeks, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has mostly played nice with the Trump administration, taking a calm and measured approach toward the federal government — even as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has lashed out at Trump for neglecting his home town in a public health crisis. The differing temperaments between the two officials – Cuomo with a cool executive air bordering on aloofness, de Blasio with an us-against-them pugnaciousness – provided a stark contrast to people outside the tri-state area who were just tuning in to New York’s growing coronavirus crisis. (Durkin and Gronewold, 3/25)

Politico: Half Of New Yorkers Likely To Get Coronavirus, De Blasio Says
New Yorkers should expect that half the city’s population will get coronavirus by the time the pandemic runs its course, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday. The mayor made the grim prediction as the number of New Yorkers who have died from the disease rose to 199 on Wednesday morning, and confirmed cases in the city jumped to 17,856. Those numbers far understate the true scope of the spread, officials said, since people not sick enough to be hospitalized are largely unable to get tested. (Durkin, 3/25)

ABC News: NYC Officials Confirm 1st Homeless Death From Coronavirus 
New York officials have confirmed the first homeless death from the novel coronavirus, a grim statistic that homeless advocates fear could rise in coming weeks. “Tragically, one New Yorker experiencing homelessness succumbed to this virus after several days in the hospital – our hearts go out to this individual’s friends and family,” said Isaac McGinn, spokesperson for the city’s Department of Social Services. (Romero and Tatum, 3/25)

ProPublica: Your Neighborhood Might Be A Coronavirus Hot Spot, But New York City Refuses To Release The Data
Residents of Los Angeles can go to a county website to look up how many confirmed coronavirus cases there are in Beverlywood, or Koreatown, or Echo Park. Officials in Charlotte, North Carolina, have released figures at the ZIP code level. The South Korean government is sending geotargeted texts to alert citizens to positive cases near them. In New York, now at the center of the outbreak, Mayor Bill de Blasio has resisted releasing what the city knows about a basic question: Where, precisely, is the virus? (Elliott, Waldman, Kaplan and Campbell, 3/25)

Politico: Thousands Of NYPD Officers Out Sick Amid Coronavirus Crisis
Thousands of NYPD officers have called in sick as the police department is hit with a growing number of coronavirus infections. About 3,200 cops are out sick Wednesday, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said — triple the normal rate. That adds up to almost 9 percent of the force. (Durkin, 3/25)