New York is slated to run out of ventilators in less than a week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference on Thursday.
“It’s not easy, it’s not ideal, but it’s better than nothing,” Cuomo told reporters in Albany. “We have six days of ventilators in our stockpile at the current burn rate.”
New York has over 11,000 ventilators from those already in hospitals, those that were in its stockpile, or those that were already on hand, and is working on buying more.
Ventilators are machines that help lungs work. They’re typically used during recovery from some surgeries, for people suffering from serious conditions like a brain injury or lung disease, and for babies with premature lung development. The machines pump oxygen into a person’s body while removing carbon dioxide. Most require electricity while some can function on battery power.
Hospitalizations Spike
The number of confirmed cases in New York increased to 92,831, an increase of 8,669, while hospitalizations rose to 13,833, a spike of 1,607 from the day prior.Three hundred and seventy-four new patients entered intensive care as those in ICUs in New York rose to 3,396.
The number of dead from COVID-19 rose to 2,372, up by 432 over 24 hours. In New York City, 1,374 of the deaths took place, with an estimated 9,775 patients hospitalized.
New York state has the highest number of cases and the most deaths in the United States. It has nearly half of the deaths in the entire nation.
Nearly 52,000 of the cases are in New York City, while surrounding counties, including Westchester, Nassau, and Suffolk counties have seen larger increases in recent days. Nassau and Suffolk authorities both reported over 1,000 new cases overnight.
Officials continued shifting the projected peak of cases after initially saying it would arrive in early to mid-April. Models now show it will arrive between seven and 30 days from now, Cuomo said, though state officials believe it’s closer to the shorter end of the range.
The models are done by outside groups and analyzed by state officials.
The projected number of hospital beds that the state may require at the peak shifted down, from as many 140,000 to between 70,000 and 110,000.
The state has 53,000 beds at the moment, with just 36,000 of them in the downstate area, where most of the cases are.