NEW YORK CITY NERVOUSLY BRACES FOR ANOTHER ‘EXPLOSIVE SPREAD’
NEW YORK CITY NERVOUSLY BRACES FOR ANOTHER ‘EXPLOSIVE SPREAD’
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NEW YORK CITY NERVOUSLY BRACES FOR ANOTHER ‘EXPLOSIVE SPREAD’
By Amanda
NEW YORK — When New York City reached its crescendo of Covid-19 cases flooding hospitals and overfilling morgues, most of the country looked on in removed horror as a disease many had never heard of threw America’s biggest city into paralysis, seemingly overnight.
a person riding on the back of a truck: A patient arrives in an ambulance cared for by medical workers due to coronavirus concerns outside NYU Langone Medical Center in New York.© AP Photo/John Minchillo, File A patient arrives in an ambulance cared for by medical workers due to coronavirus concerns outside NYU Langone Medical Center in New York.
Now New York is watching the same scenario play out in states throughout the U.S., while presiding over three months of sustained success in keeping infections low. But with cold weather approaching, schools tentatively reopening and many forced back indoors, the threat of a new outbreak is never far from the minds of public health officials.
“The second wave is a misconception: It’s the omnipresent risk of explosive spread,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC director and current president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies. “That’s what we’re facing.”
With a total of 237,525 confirmed and probable cases and more than 23,500 dead, New York City has already experienced the worst the coronavirus has to offer. But as hospitals and health officials gird for a second city outbreak, the spread of the virus throughout the rest of the country is bringing some challenges the city did not face the first time around — and some that continue to linger from the darkest days of March and April.
In many cases, the city is better prepared: it knows the warning signs, hospitals are communicating weekly to share best practices and other information, and New Yorkers are largely complying with social distancing and mask guidance to cut down on transmission.
But in some areas, the wisdom of experience won’t be enough. The hospitals need to create space for surge capacity while maintaining operations that were halted during the first wave, nearly bankrupting even the wealthiest systems; they’ll have to build up testing capacity despite equipment shortages; and they’ll have to secure the necessary supplies for treating and diagnosing patients amid global demand.
The biggest challenge, though, is staff. The army of medical worker reinforcements who came to New York’s aid are now dispatched to hot spots around the country, and many of those based in the city are still enduring the trauma of witnessing horrors they never could have imagined in February.
“We were the first and the worst in New York, and we had to come up with a lot of solutions that weren't national solutions on the fly,” said Don Boyce, vice president of emergency management at Mount Sinai.
Protocols on staff, space, PPE and testing are now part of hospitals’ playbooks to manage a potential second wave, influenced by new safeguards mandated by the Cuomo administration.
Hospitals across the state are required to continually maintain at least a 90-day supply of personal protective equipment starting Sept. 30 based on the peak of the first wave, according to guidance issued by the state health department in July.
Health systems like Northwell, Mount Sinai and NYU Langone Health said they are bolstering their PPE stockpiles and will enact conservation methods used by frontline workers during the first wave, such as reusing equipment until it’s soiled, when their burn rates increase.
“Conservation for us is key and crucial. We’re watching