De Blasio put out a blanket call for anyone in the city who has health-care skills. He said there are 9,000 licensed and retired health-care workers registered in the Medical Reserve Corps that will be mobilized immediately.
He asked retired medical workers to return to service and said he would be expediting licensing for students.
The city is preparing for an “onslaught” of cases, he said, adding that local officials believe there will be thousands of confirmed infections by next week.
“We’re in a period where we have a very few days and weeks to prepare for a massive number of cases,” he said. “It’s not that long before we hit 10,000 cases.”
Across the state, the virus has spread to about 1,700 people, hospitalizing 19% of them and killing at least 12, state officials announced Tuesday.
The state is scrambling to expand its hospital capacity to handle an influx of cases before infections are expected to peak in about 45 days, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference in Albany.
New York state doesn’t have enough hospital beds or respirators to handle the expected surge in respiratory cases, Cuomo said. There are 53,000 hospital beds across the state and 3,000 ICU beds, he said, adding that the state will need at least 55,000 hospital beds and between 18,600 to 37,200 ICU beds at the peak of the outbreak.
Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/17/new-yorkers-should-be-prepared-for-a-shelter-in-place-order-mayor-bill-de-blasio-says.html
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