The number of new hospitalizations of ‘coronavirus’ cases in New York – one of the key indicators of reopening the city – are not all confirmed cases and are merely people who arrive at emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms, it has been revealed along with the revelation that the city would be ready to open if it had more hospital beds and contact tracers.
On Monday, de Blasio said: ‘June is when we’re going to potentially be able to make some real changes if we continue our progress.
‘This conversation, end of May, beginning of June is when we’re going to be able to start filling in the blanks.
‘Unless something miraculous happens we’re going into June.’
It will be up to him to lead the staggered reopening of New York. First, construction and manufacturing jobs will be allowed back to work then it will be retail, professional services and real estate.
Every region has a ‘control room’ where the spread of the infection will be monitored and if cases get too high, the reopening will be wound back again.
In New York City, there have been more than 177,000 cases and more than 14,000 deaths.
On Saturday, there were only 55 new hospitalizations of suspected coronavirus cases across the city, which has a population of 8.4million.
But not all of those cases were confirmed cases. Instead, they were people who showed up at emergency rooms complaining of COVID-19 like symptoms.
Data provided by the city shows how hospitalizations peaked and slowed. Not all of the cases though are confirmed COVID-19. Instead, they represent people who show up at emergency rooms with coronavirus-like symptoms. The true number of people testing positive afterwards is unknown
Bill de Blasio said on Monday it would take something ‘miraculous to happen’ for NYC to meet the numbers needed by May 15
It’s unclear how many ever tested positive afterwards. The city does not track how many were discharged having never been diagnosed with the virus.
Instead, it lumps those who did test positive in with the number of overall positive diagnoses across the city which means the true number of hospitalizations is lower than previously thought.
By the number of daily new hospitalizations of even the suspected cases, the city well within the daily new hospitalization requirement of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s reopening plan which is to have fewer than two people for every 100,000 residents. That number in New York City is 168.
And the percentage of people testing positive for the virus dropped from 17 percent to 13 percent of the city’s population.
New York still does not have enough free hospital beds and contact tracers to reopen.
It needs to keep 30 percent of its ICU beds and 30 percent of its overall hospital beds free. As of Monday afternoon, 22 percent of the ICU beds were free and 25 percent of the hospital beds were free.
What could be an even bigger hold up is the lack of contact tracers in place to track down everyone who might have come into contact with the virus.
Cuomo made it a mandate to have 30 for every 100,000 residents. That means that in New York City, 2,250 are needed.
But as of Monday, the city had not yet hired 1,000.
‘We are in the hundreds for contact tracers and rapidly hiring and building out our infrastructure to meet the statewide goals,’ a spokesman for City Hall told DailyMail.com.
A person wearing a face mask looks out onto a lawn filled with people at Madison Square Park during the coronavirus pandemic on May 10, 2020 in New York City
Streets are deserted at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Washington Heights on May 10, 2020 in New York City
It was a less enthusiastic prediction than last week, when the city said it was ‘on track’ to meet the goal by May 15, the end of the statewide lockdown.
The city plans to use 1,000 existing Department of Health employees to work in the taskforce, and hire another 1,250.
The program will be overseen by Mike Bloomberg and Johns Hopkins.
It’s unclear if the reopening rule to have the system in place means to have the tracers hired, or if it means to have the program up and running.
Even once all the positions are filled, tracers must complete an online curriculum and then pass a test.
Jobs are being advertised online for the roles.
The salary ranges from $57,000 to $65,000 and applicants must have a background in healthcare plus the equivalent of a four year high school diploma.
New York is one of the only states insisting on the tracing program as a requirement of reopening. Other states are building it out while allowing people back to work.