New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city needs an additional 65,000 hospital beds by the end of April to deal with the anticipated surge of coronavirus patients and is working with hotels to acquire rooms for the sick.
“This is going to be an epic process through the month of April to build out that capacity, but this goal is within reach. It’s going to take a Herculean effort,” the Democratic mayor said in a press conference Wednesday. “The 20,000 beds — as I said, they were already there. Hospitals are now adding up to 50% more capacity just drawing on all the space they have.”
De Blasio did not state how many hotel rooms will be used to house patients or which hotels the city will partner with. New York City hospitals have room for 20,000 patients, but those beds will be repurposed to hold intensive care unit patients. Hospitals will make room for an additional 10,000 beds in their facilities.
“That’s what our hospitals will be for more and more, taking on the toughest COVID cases at the front line,” de Blasio said.
Patients with less severe diagnoses will be cared for in hotels across the region. It’s not clear if hotels will be compensated or given other benefits for allowing the city to use its property. The city is also transitioning the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan into a medical facility that will have “thousands” of beds, the mayor said.
Mitchell Katz, president of NYC Health and Hospitals, said the city opted to keep ICU patients at hospitals because those facilities have radiology equipment, pharmacies, and laboratories that patients in worse condition are more likely to need.
The five boroughs that make up New York City reported 47,439 coronavirus cases Wednesday morning, up 10% from Tuesday.
