The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in the most 911 calls for emergency medical services in New York City since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Since the outbreak began, it has infected more than 25,000 people in the city. Calls for emergency medical services are up 40% to about 6,500 per day, according to Oren Barzilay, president of Local 2507, a union representing paramedics, dispatchers, and emergency medical technicians.
“Our busiest day of the year, we usually do 5,000 calls. That’s usually New Year’s Day. We have shattered a record last night,” Barzilay told Bloomberg. “Due to the spike, we have some calls that are waiting three, four hours to get an ambulance.”
Anthony Almojera, vice president of Local 3621, which represents EMS workers within the fire department, said there has been a surge of calls for pain and tightness in the chest and for fevers and coughs.
“Most since September 11th,” Almojera said.
The New York City 911 system has about 2,000 dispatchers, with 400 for emergency medical services, 200 for the fire department, and the rest for police services. Barzilay said 200 workers are out sick, and he is worried about what will happen if the virus continues to spread.
“We are already past the surge for our system. We passed that mark,” he said. “If we lose another 10% of people to falling ill from this, I think the city is going to being a crisis.”
The United States has had more than 94,200 cases of the coronavirus and more than 1,400 deaths, according to the tracker from Johns Hopkins University.