The number of infected people explodes: New York becomes the epicenter in America

New York is currently the epicenter of the corona crisis in America. Governor Cuomo is desperate to prepare local hospitals for the rise in the number of cases.

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America threatens to become the next epicenter of the corona pandemic. The number of officially registered infected people is currently exploding in the metropolitan areas of Atlanta (Georgia), Miami (Florida), New Orleans (Louisiana), Nashville (Tennessee), Detroit (Michigan) and New York City.

The situation is particularly dramatic in America’s most populous city, where around 8.4 million people live in a small area – or roughly the same as in Switzerland. There are currently around 900 people in intensive care units in hospitals in the state, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, announced on Wednesday. But this is only the beginning of the crisis. In any case, he assumes that the official number of cases will rise sharply in the next three weeks.

Because around 15 percent of all people who tested positive needed hospital treatment, and 3 percent would have to be treated intensively, this coming explosion worries him, said Cuomo. Because a maximum of only 3000 beds would be available in the New York intensive care units. And he estimates that during the height of the crisis in maybe three weeks, around 40,000 New Yorkers would have to receive intensive care – although the health system is already at its limit, as can be read from stories.

State needs 19,000 ventilators

Even the tough governor does not know how New York can survive this acid test. The “greatest challenge” is currently to obtain the ventilation equipment that is absolutely necessary for the additional beds required in the intensive care units, says Cuomo. New York needed 19,000 additional ventilators. “We have bought everything that can be bought,” and his state is therefore dependent on the help of the government in Washington.

The governor, on the other hand, does not seem interested in exacerbating the health crisis by politically declaring war on the federal government and accentuating the division between Democrats and Republicans. He therefore promised to leave all medical supply equipment to the next “hotspot” in America as soon as the height of the crisis in New York was over. “We are first,” said Cuomo, but the virus will spread across the country and other parts of the country will benefit from the expertise of New Yorkers as the crisis progresses.

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