Cuomo orders hospitals to up capacity, warns NY could hit 'PAUSE' if state reaches 'crisis'

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- New York could hit "PAUSE" again if the state hits "a real hospitalization crisis," Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned Monday, as the number of residents hospitalized with COVID-19 continued to climb.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state have increased "dramatically" in recent months, from 891 on June 29 to 3,532 on Sunday, Cuomo said at a news briefing. Hospitals, meanwhile, are "already experiencing staffing shortages," he said.

As a result, the state has initiated a number of "emergency hospital procedures," including recruiting retired nurses and doctors to help treat COVID-19 patients; directing hospitals to increase capacity by 50 percent; and drafting plans for emergency field hospitals, he said.

Officials are also prepared to enact new restrictions if the curve continues to climb, Cuomo said.

"We're going to add, on top of yellow, orange [and] red [zones], an emergency stop provision where if we hit a real hospitalization crisis, we could potentially do a New York 'PAUSE,'" he said. "California just did a California 'PAUSE,' which is basically a stop. Or move one zone to another if we have a critical hospital situation."

Erie County will hit pause on elective surgeries starting Friday, as the area currently has "the most critical hospital situation in the state," he said.

The state will also be launching a "hospital capacity emergency tracking system" to monitor its hospital systems and ensure no single hospital is overloaded with COVID-19 patients.

Systems that find themselves nearing a crisis due to a lack of staffing or a surge in COVID-19 cases will be required to transfer patients to other hospitals, the governor noted.

"We're not going to live through the nightmare of overwhelmed hospitals again," he said.

Of the 148,974 COVID-19 test results that came back in the state on Sunday, 6,819, or 4.57 percent, were positive, Cuomo said.

Sixty-five percent of the new COVID-19 cases the state is reporting have been linked to small gatherings, he noted. The state also reported 54 new COVID-19-related deaths.

"Cut out the small gatherings. Now." Cuomo tweeted after his briefing. "Government can't enforce who's in your living room. But you can."