New York City (Reuters) – As the coronavirus pandemic’s U.S. death toll raced previous 1,000 individuals, medical facilities and federal government authorities in New York, New Orleans and other hot spots grappled on Thursday with a surge in cases and a dire scarcity of supplies, staff and ill beds.
A client is wheeled to an ambulance during the break out of Coronavirus illness (COVID-19), in the Manhattan district of New York City, New York, U.S., March 26,2020 REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
Medical facilities were running short of ventilators and protective masks and were hindered by restricted testing capability as the number of validated U.S. cases of COVID-19, the breathing disease caused by the virus, increased to about 70,000
” Any scenario that is reasonable will overwhelm the capacity of the healthcare system,” New york city Governor Andrew Cuomo informed a press conference. The expected deficiency of ventilators – devices that support breathing for people who have lost the ability on their own – was substantial, he said.
” The variety of ventilators we require is so astronomical – it’s not like they have them sitting in the storage facility,” Cuomo added. “There is no stockpile available.”
The state’s death toll stood at 385, up from 285 a day previously, the greatest in the country. Based on the large number of hospitalized patients on ventilators, that number is anticipated to continue to increase, Cuomo stated. The variety of validated infections in New york city rose to 37,000 – about half the U.S. overall – consisting of 6,400 in the previous day.
The objective is to get to a capability of 140,000 healthcare facility beds, up from the present 53,000, and authorities are scouting new sites, Cuomo stated.
Asked about media reports of some New york city City healthcare employees resorting to utilizing plastic garbage bags to try to secure themselves, Cuomo acknowledged issues with the