NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced a new five-point strategy as New York enters a new phase in the war against COVID-19.
The governor warned Monday that the hospitalization rate has been increasing dramatically and hospital capacity is now the top concern.
The first part of the state's strategy will shift the focus to the number of hospitalizations and hospital capacity. In addition to the yellow, orange and red zone designations, the state will also track the hospitalization rate, death rate, case rate, available hospital beds, available ICU beds, available staff, effective patient load management, PPE and equipment availability.
"We are now worried about overwhelming the hospital system," Cuomo said. "If those numbers continue to increase, which we expect they will, you will see serious stress on the hospital system."
The governor is also adding an emergency stop provision that could lead to more shutdowns.
"If we hit a real hospitalization crisis, we could potentially do a New York Pause," Cuomo said.
As part of the plan the New York State Department of Health is initiating emergency hospital measures including:
- Every hospital has to identify retired nurses and doctors now in case of a staff shortage
- Stop elective surgery in Erie County starting Friday
- Individual hospital network balancing is mandated now, meaning hospital systems must balance the load within their system and distribute patients among the hospitals within its system. If a hospital gets overwhelmed there will be a state investigation.
- Prepare emergency field hospital plans regionwide
- Hospitals plan now for adding 50% capacity
- Prepare to implement statewide surge and flex, meaning moving patients among different hospital systems
- Prepare to staff emergency field hospitals
- Hospitals confirm their 90-day PPE stockpile as required by the state
The state will also launch a hospital capacity emergency tracking system to monitor triggers in real time.
The second part of the strategy involves increasing the gross amount of testing and balancing distribution among health care workers, nursing homes, schools, essential workers, business professionals and the general population. The governor said it is up to local governments to make sure testing is distributed fairly and equally among those groups.
The third part of the strategy focuses on keeping schools open, particularly special education and K-8, through sustainable and ongoing testing. The governor said testing will be conducted on a weekly basis for schools in orange and red zones. The state mandate is 20% over a month in orange zones and 30% over a month in red zones. Pool testing will be allowed and local districts can also exceed the minimum state testing level.
Schools can close lower than the state's threshold, but the governor's advice is to keep K-8 schools open if it is safe to do so.
The fourth part of the strategy focuses on launching a public education campaign warning New Yorkers about the dangers of small gatherings, which are now responsible for about 65% of the state's coronavirus cases.
The final part of the strategy focuses on the vaccination plan, which Cuomo said "will be that weapon that will end the war." Cuomo said vaccine delivery could start in the next few weeks and the state will launch an aggressive and robust vaccination program built around fairness, equity and safety.