New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo revealed that approximately 15% of New Yorkers diagnosed with the coronavirus have been hospitalized.
Cuomo addressed the hospitalization rate in New York and how the city is grappling with the virus during his Saturday morning press conference on the virus, a day after they ramped up quarantine measures.
“Again, because this is all about hospital capacity, right? 1,600 out of 10,000, that’s roughly 15% of the cases, it’s been running about 14, 15. It’s gone as high as 20%, 21%. So, actually, 15% rate of hospitalization is not a bad number,” Cuomo explained. “It’s actually down from where it was. The more refined the number is of those who are hospitalized, how many require the ventilators because the ventilators are the piece of equipment that is most scarce, that’s the next refinement of these numbers that we have to do.”
He also pointed to securing more resources for hospitals that are running out of necessary supplies to treat the virus. The state has identified 6,000 ventilators that they will purchase, and they are shipping 1.5 million N-95 masks to New York City and Long Island.
There have been more than 8,400 confirmed coronavirus cases in New York, which has led to 46 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. New York has accounted for a significant portion of the cases in the United States, as there have been approximately 20,000 cases throughout the country.
