PHOTO BY BJOERTVEDT VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
By David Brand
More than 100 patients with COVID-19 are receiving care at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, with “80 percent” of the hospital now devoted to treating the illness, according to a physician working at the hospital.
A cell phone video that
was posted to social media Friday reveals a crowded emergency room, with beds packed together leading to a hallway.
“It is the exact picture now,” the physician said of the video. He asked to remain anonymous in order to speak freely. “We are flooded with patients.”
The tail end of the video shows the area where patients who are suspected to have COVID-19 are kept in the hospital, he said.
Though city-run Elmhurst Hospital Medical Center
has emerged as the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis, the outbreak threatens to strain other local hospitals as well.
More than 25,500 New Yorkers, including 8,214 people in Queens,
had tested positive for COVID-19 as of 8:30 a.m. Friday. At least 366 had died, according to city figures.
Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, a nonprofit facility located off the Van Wyck Expressway in Richmond Hill, is located in a district where more than 50 percent of people tested for the illness were positive,
according to a map published by the city Friday.
The physician who spoke with the
Eagle said Jamaica Hospital has a little more than 70 ventilators, of which about 60 are in use by patients with COVID-19. The devices are vital for assisting COVID-19 patients with critical breathing problems.
“We are running low on ventilators but still not in a position where we need to make the decision of not to intubate because of age,” the physician said, adding that
three residents have tested positive for COVID-19.
PATIENTS WEAR PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT WHILE MAINTAINING SOCIAL DISTANCING AS THEY WAIT IN LINE FOR A COVID-19 TEST AT ELMHURST HOSPITAL CENTER. AP PHOTO/JOHN MINCHILLO
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PATIENTS WEAR PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT WHILE MAINTAINING SOCIAL DISTANCING AS THEY WAIT IN LINE FOR A COVID-19 TEST AT ELMHURST HOSPITAL CENTER. AP PHOTO/JOHN MINCHILLO
A spokesperson for Jamaica Hospital declined to provide specific patient or ventilator statistics.
“I’m not going to give you numbers on how many patients we have but it’s obvious that we are dealing with a serious health crisis here and we’re putting all our efforts into treating our patients,” said hospital spokesperson Michael Hinck.
“Suffice to say this is a great challenge and we’re doing our best and I applaud our frontline staff for all they’re doing,” Hinck continued. “We’re doing everything we can to meet this challenge.”
Queens, a borough of roughly 2.3 million people, has ten hospitals and the lowest per capita hospital rate in the city.
Patients have been lining up for hours to get tested in a
temporary testing tent outside Elmhurst Hospital. More than a dozen people died at the hospital during a 24-hour span Tuesday and Wednesday.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday that the city was diverting 40 ventilators and 56 staff members to contend with the crisis at Elmhurst.
This hospital is like 10-15 minute drive from where I am at wow and its getting worse and not better
Queens College will house students from across the CUNY system who are forced to move out of their dorms due to the COVID-19 outbreak, university officials said Wednesday.
CUNY forced students out of their dorms throughout the city after ending nearly all in-person classes and moving to
distance learning on March 12. Students were initially told that campus facilities like libraries and dormitories would
remain open for student use, but the plan changed as the virus spread. Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered for all
nonessential businesses to close, and stricter rules around social distancing were put into effect.
On Tuesday, the College of Staten Island, and Manhattan’s Hunter College and City College asked students to start packing their belongings to move out of dorms,
THE CITY first reported. Manhattan’s Baruch College also asked its students to move out that day. The school told students that they would be transported to Queens College if they had nowhere else to live.
“CUNY is doing all it can in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, including making dormitories available for use as medical facilities, as requested by the state,” CUNY spokesperson Frank Sobrino confirmed to the
Eagle. “Students residing in these facilities who are unable to go home are being offered placement in a dormitory at Queens College, where they will continue receiving full services.”
A Queens College spokesperson directed questions to CUNY.
Neel Hatwar, a Baruch student who lives in Dubai, said that he will be making the move from his Manhattan dorm room to Queens College on Saturday.
The order to leave the Baruch dorms “was really shocking,” Hatwar said. “We were expecting to stay in the dorm for the foreseeable future.”
After classes went online, he planned to stay in the city for internship opportunities over the summer, or to take a summer class. If he had known that Baruch would be emptying its dorms, he probably would have returned home, but now flights are canceled, he said.
Three of his friends will be joining him on the trek to Queens — Hatwar said he hopes they can room together.
Though Hatwar thinks that Baruch could have given more warning ahead of time about the dorms, he is grateful that CUNY is finding him and other students a new place to stay.
Baruch College freshman Harris Semertzidis lives in the dorms at Baruch and said many of his peers have no other housing options.
“A lot of people that are staying at the dorms don’t really have anywhere else to go,” Semertzidis
Semertzidis said he had returned to his home on Long Island after his classes went online, but was forced to return to the dorms this week to collect the rest of his belongings. He described the scene there as “apocalyptic.”
“It was eerie,” he said. Many students like himself, who came back to the dorms from home to retrieve their belongings, were wearing protective equipment like gloves and masks, he said.
Semertzidis said he wore gloves, and tried not to touch high-traffic surfaces, like elevator buttons.
Semertzidis thought that CUNY could have done a better, less confusing job of alerting students about the sudden change, but he didn’t fault the university system for dealing with an unprecedented challenge.
“When people have to move out quickly during a pandemic, things need to be organized,” he said.
Queens College has also been named by Cuomo as a potential site for a temporary hospital. Cuomo said Thursday that the state plans to build a 1,000-bed hospital in every borough to contend with the spread of COVID-19.
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*Rumors not confimed-40 deaths from Elmhurst Hospital just today again not confirmed so far
Coronavirus claims the life of first NYC correction officer: union
The first city correction officer died on Friday after contracting coronavirus, union officials said.
Officer Quinsey Simpson, an 18-year veteran of the Department of Correction, worked in the Security Operations Division at Rikers Island.
“Correction Officer Simpson served our department with dignity and honor for nearly twenty years," said Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association President Elias Husamudeen.
“He embodied the very best qualities of New York City’s Boldest and was extremely well-liked by his fellow officers,” Husamudeen said. "His tragic death from this invisible disease has left our hearts broken. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time.”
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As of Friday, 80 Correction Department staffers had tested positive for coronavirus.
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Latest coronavirus updates: Click here for our roundup of the most important developments from NYC and around the world.
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New York Daily News
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Chelsia Rose Marcius is the criminal justice reporter at the New York Daily News. She is also the author of Wild Escape: The Prison Break from Dannemora and the Manhunt that Captured America. When she’s not out reporting, Chelsia teaches aspiring journalists at New York University.
https://www.nydailynews.com/coronav...0200328-nigkl3rp2ngctghyftmfkyq66u-story.html
Jacobi nurses rebel against wearing same coronavirus mask for 5 days
Nurses at Jacobi hospital in the Bronx are rebelling against a new city hospital policy of rationing that would require them to reuse the same N95 mask for up to five days.
They’re told to put another surgical mask over the same mask to prevent contamination.
“Management is limiting access to PPE equipment, and asking nurses to reuse N95s for an entire week. This is unacceptable for nurses and the COVID patients we are trying to save,” Jacobi nurse Kelley Cabrera told The Post.
“We’re being asked to do something we would have been reprimanded for a month ago. We’re putting ourselves and our patients in danger by doing this,” added Cabrera, the Nurses Association union rep at the facility.
Ideally nurses should use one mask per visit with a patient and then discard for infection control, Cabrera, who works in the emergency department, said.
Jacobi nurses are so incensed that they are holding a rally outside the hospital Saturday to protest the policy.
Cabrera said city health authorities know this is a risky practice but they’re imposing it because of inadequate supplies.
A notice to staffers sent by Jacobi Chief Medical Officer Michael Zinaman and Chief Nurse Officer Suzanne Pennacchio said “N95s can be re-used up to five days per H+H [Health+Hospitals] guidelines.”
They said “surgical masks are to be worn over N95 masks” to bolster safety.
Cabrera pointed to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that say if there is a shortage of masks health care workers can use “homemade masks (e.g., bandana, scarf) for care of patients with COVID-19 as a last resort…..”
Health+Hospitals issued a statement Friday night saying that “every health care worker in our system who needs PPE [personal protective equipment} is able to receive what they need” but acknowledged “we have taken serious measures to conserve what we do have.”
“Nurses are the heart of NYC Health + Hospitals and their safety during our COVID-19 response is a top priority. We currently have the supplies needed for all of our staff, but are fully cognizant that there is a nationwide shortage of supplies,” the statement said, adding, “we continue to advocate to local, state and federal agencies for additional personal protective equipment.”
Jacobi and the public hospitals are following guidelines set forth by the CDC and city and state health departments and each healthcare worker has the ability to use or reuse any equipment “based on their own assessment of appropriateness,” an Health+Hospitals official said.
Meanwhile during a press briefing Friday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said additional masks and other protective gear are being shipped to hospitals.
The revolt against the rationing of masks follows The Post report of nurses at Mt. Sinai West hospital resorting to wearing trash bags over their uniforms to protest the rationing of gowns, and blamed the situation for the coronavirus death of a beloved colleague, Kious Kelly.
Mt. Sinai denied any shortage of protective gear.
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https://nypost.com/2020/03/27/jacobi-nurses-rebel-against-wearing-same-coronavirus-mask-for-5-days/
MTA distributing 75,000 masks to work force
By: Stephen M. Lepore
NEW YORK — The MTA has secured masks to help out its workforce during the coronavirus pandemic.
NYC Transit, MTA Bus, LIRR and Metro-North employees will be getting 75,000 masks in the coming days, with the number expected to increase in order to replenish weekly. The plan for distribution of masks is being finalized in coming days.
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Medical guidance continues to be that masks are not recommended as protection against COVID-19, however, masks will be made available to employees who choose to wear them.
"Obtaining a large number of masks for our incredible MTA workforce is great news and I know comes as a relief to many,” said Patrick J. Foye, MTA Chairman and CEO. “Medical guidance on this issue remains the same — masks offer protection only for those who are ill, and only in prevention of their spreading of the virus. That said, I know wearing a mask at this uncertain time offers additional comfort to many of our employees, and I am grateful we are able to provide that."
“We’ve been working very hard to try and secure masks for transit workers during what has been widely reported as a global shortage of supplies,” Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Tony Utano said. “This has been a very traumatic time for my members and I hope these masks will give them some peace of mind as they continue providing essential bus and subway service to New York, especially for our nurses, EMS personnel, firefighters and police.”
As of Friday, there were 25,573 coronavirus cases in New York City and 366 people have died.
https://www.pix11.com/news/coronavirus/mta-distributing-75-000-masks-to-work-force
Queens Uber driver died of COVID after he stopped giving rides out of fear of the virus
A Queens Uber driver died of COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, Tuesday at around 12:30 a.m. after he stopped doing for-hire driving out of fear of contracting the virus.
“Our hearts go out to Anil’s loved ones and to everyone suffering during this unprecedented time,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said.
Anil Subba was a Nepalese immigrant living in Jackson Heights with his wife and three children, including an 11-year old.
He had chosen to stop offering Uber rides just about two weeks before his death because he became afraid of catching COVID-19 after transporting a sick passenger from John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Despite this precaution — which had put on hold his family’s sole source of income — Subba did in fact get sick and he wound up in Elmhurst Hospital, now officially called NYC Health + Hospitals/ Elmhurst.
By the time that Subba died, he had been on a ventilator for two days and the hospital had refused his family from seeing or speaking with him.
“We tried to phone him but nobody was allowed. The family members couldn’t talk to him,” Subba’s cousin Munindra Nembang told
The New York Post.
According to Nembang, several other members of the Nepalese community in their area, some of which are also Uber drivers, have contracted the coronavirus.
Read more about this in this article:
The New York Post
https://www.queenscountypolitics.com/2020/03/27/covid-19-queens-update-03-27-2020/
A shocking new Facebook video shows disturbing, crowded conditions inside the emergency room at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens — with gurneys crammed side by side and sick patients waiting on chairs amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Who is the sickest patient needs to go up?” a stressed voice can be heard asking at one point.
“I don’t know,” another voice answers.
The video was posted Thursday by a Facebook user who received it from an anonymous hospital worker.
At the time it was posted, the latest city figures showed Queens leading New York City with 7,362 reported cases of infection — the highest percentage in the five boroughs.
At least 850 New Yorkers were being treated in ICUs out of 4,720 patients hospitalized citywide.
A hospital spokesman declined to comment on the video, except to say that it was “unauthorized” and filmed inside the emergency room.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/27/coronavirus-in-ny-video-shows-disturbing-crowded-hospital-er/
NEW YORK CITY — Residents of United Hospital Fund Neighborhood zone 408 who tested positive for COVID-19 make up between 51.26 and 65.41 percent of the region's population to receive tests.
Get it? Yeah, neither do we.
The Health Department released Friday a
difficult-to-interpret map of novel coronavirus cases in New York City, one day after a Wall Street Journal reporter called out Mayor Bill de Blasio for a lack of transparency.
"You have to release more detailed data on cases and deaths," Katie Honan told de Blasio. "It's negligent that you're not ... please, everyone has to get this data."
De Blasio lashed back at Honan, "If you believe it's your role to editorialize in the middle of your question, that's your right as an American."
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"I don't believe that not only is it not negligent," he said. "I would say to you it's the exact opposite."
To keep up to date with coronavirus developments in NYC, sign up for Patch's news alerts and newsletter.
Yet less than 24 hours later, a new map appeared on the Department of Health's COVID-19 that tracks the percentage of patients testing positive by neighborhood.
Neighborhoods are designated by numbers instead of name — 408 is Jamaica, Queens, by the way — and the percentages are not connected to population data but to those tested.
The number of people tested per zone? Not included.
The population for zone? Not included.
Some New Yorkers were baffled.
"Anyone from NYC area who can parse this heat map of Covid-19?" asked Twitter user @_mzishi_.
Others were not.
"Map is pretty clear," tweeted Devin Balkind. "It's showing that the administration has no interest in transparency."
De Blasio himself admitted the map was flawed due to the uneven testing that occurred before the city made criteria more strict.
"The information we have is skewed," de Blasio said. "This information only tells you part of the pattern because the testing has been so inconsistent."
The closest New Yorkers can get to local numbers are the borough breakdowns published in a separate document.
As of Friday morning, Queens has 8214 cases, Brooklyn had 6750 cases, The Bronx had 4655 cases, Manhattan had 4478 cases and Staten Island had 1,440 cases for a citywide total of 25,573, data show.
And 366 New York City had lost their lives to the virus, data show.
Honan is not the first reporter to call out the Mayor's office for failing to provide a level of information made available in Los Angeles, North Carolina and South Korea.
ProPublica published Wednesday a
thorough report on the lack of local New York City data and the effect it had on journalists, health care workers and the public.
Dr. Michael Augenbraun, director of the infectious diseases division at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, told ProPublica, "I think it would be useful to us in the hospitals to get a detailed situational appraisal, to know how much of the burden we are confronting."
But ProPublica's analysis also notes there could be a dark side to releasing location-driven data.
"Around the country, there have been disturbing reports of bias attacks against Asian Americans by assailants blaming Chinese communities for the spread of the virus," the report reads.
Hostilities mounted in New York City to the point where the Attorney General's office felt obligated to
launch a novel coronavirus hate crime hotline.
Yet Honan wrote on Twitter Friday afternoon she was glad to see the city releasing information to the public and promised to keep pushing for more.
"It's not perfect, since we don't have raw numbers," Honan wrote. "We will all keep asking for better data."
