A primary school is closed due to COVID-19 in New York, the United States, March 16, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)
Andrew Cuomo, governor of the US state of New York, on Tuesday called for national unity in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the Empire State has become the country’s first state to have reported over 1,000 COVID-19 cases.
A total of 432 new cases have been confirmed overnight in the northeastern state, bringing the total number to 1,374, which is currently the highest state total in the country, said Cuomo at a press conference Tuesday morning.
“This is an extraordinary time in this nation’s history. It will go down in the history books as one of those moments of true crisis, and confusion and chaos,” said Cuomo.
“Everybody is afraid. Everybody is nervous. How you respond, how you act, this is a character test for all of us individually. It is a character test for us collectively as a society,” he noted.
The governor said that federal resources are needed to counter the crisis, such as those of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on the hospital capacity issue.
He warned the number of COVID-19 cases in the state might not peak for another 45 days, citing expert projections.
The state then will need some 55,000 to 110,000 hospital beds and 18,600 to 37,200 ICU beds when reaching the peak. But currently it has only 53,000 hospital beds and 3,000 ICU beds, he noted.
“The concept is right: Flatten the curve, slow the spread so the health care system can handle it,” he said. “(But) I don’t think of a curve. I think of a wave. And the wave is going to break, and the wave is going to break on the hospital system.”
On Monday, the governor issued an executive order allowing the state to organize the National Guard to find existing facilities that can be converted to medical facilities, with the goal of creating an additional 9,000 beds.
Over 5,700 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States as of Tuesday afternoon local time, an increase of over 1,000 since Monday night.
