Regions that reach “critical hospital capacity” will be designated COVID-19 “red zones” under New York’s micro-cluster strategy, triggering strict new restrictions including school closings, the shutdown of non-essential businesses — including restaurants, which would again be limited to takeout and delivery services — and attendance limits on houses of worship.
“Critical hospital capacity” is 90% of capacity, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said yesterday.
The state gets an inventory every night from every hospital of the number of patients, beds and ICU beds the hospital has, Cuomo said.
“If hospital capacity becomes critical, we’re going to close down that region, period,” Cuomo said.
The red zone designation will be applied if a region’s seven-day average hospitalization growth rate shows that the region will reach 90% within the next three weeks, Cuomo said.
Currently the Long Island region has the lowest regional hospital bed and ICU bed capacities in the state — 18% of all hospital beds are available and 25% of ICU beds are available. The New York City region has the second lowest capacity rates in the state, with 19% of all hospital beds and 27% of ICU beds available as of yesterday, according to data provided by the governor’s office last night.
Hospitals across the state are mandated to begin expanding their bed capacity by 25% to prepare for more COVID-19 patients under the state’s “surge and flex” protocol, which aims to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed by an anticipated surge in coronavirus infections during the holiday season.
Cuomo yesterday also announced that if a region’s hospitalization rate does not stabilize in the next five days, additional restrictions will be applied to indoor dining. If the hospitalization rate does not stabilize in New York City in the next five days, indoor dining will be suspended, Cuomo said. If the rate does not stabilize in regions outside New York City, capacity restrictions will be reduced to 25 percent, he said.
The governor did not provide details on how the state calculates a region’s hospitalization rate or what criteria are used to determine hospital rate stabilization.
Cuomo yesterday also issued a call to all retired doctors and nurses, urging them to return to service if they are able to do so. A registration will be renewed at no cost for an individual who completes the questionnaire through the volunteer portal, set up by the state Department of Health.
Surveys conducted last month by the American Hospital Association and the health publication STAT found that hospitals in half the states were experiencing critical staffing and capacity shortages due to COVID-19 surges.
Hospitals pushed to the brink in California, which had set a 15% minimum hospital capacity threshold, prompted the governor there to implement new lockdowns, which went into effect Sunday night.
There were 4,602 New Yorkers hospitalized as of Sunday. There were 530 new admissions. There were 872 patients in ICU, an increase of 22. Of the 872 patients in ICU, 477 were on ventilators.
The state had an overall testing positivity rate of 4.79%. There were 80 COVID-19 deaths in New York State.
Suffolk County reported a 6.2% positive rate for 12,137 tests on Sunday a slightly lower positive rate (6.%) than tests reported (17,711) Saturday. The county’s seven-day average positive rate was 6.1%, up from 5.9% the day before. The seven-day average testing percent-positive rate has been consistently climbing this fall, when it rose to over 2% for the first time since May.
County Executive Steve Bellone said yesterday the county “saw four straight days of new cases over 1,000. To put this in perspective,” he said, “during the height of the pandemic this spring, Suffolk County only saw 12 days over 1,000 new cases.”
There were 359 COVID hospitalizations in Suffolk as of Sunday, with 45 of them new admissions. Fifty-seven people were in intensive care units, and 29 ICU patients were on ventilators. There were six fatalities.
For the first time since the governor announced the state’s micro-cluster strategy on Oct. 21, the governor’s office did not mention the state’s focus zones or include focus zone positivity rate data in its daily press release. There were, at last report, 29 focus zones in New York State, among them a two in Suffolk: Riverhead and Hampton Bays. While focus zone maps are published on the state website, is not clear if the data for individual focus zones are published on the state’s website.
Officials urge residents to be vigilant about following state and CDC guidelines to prevent the spread of the virus. In addition to face coverings, social distancing and hand hygiene, health officials are urging people to avoid gatherings with people outside their households and avoid indoor spaces where people might be unmasked.
Bellone repeated that message again yesterday.
“I cannot stress enough the dangers posed by small indoor gatherings,” he said. “Just because you are in your home with people you trust does not mean you are safe. If we don’t change our behaviors quickly our hospital system will be at risk of being overwhelmed and we will lose more lives.”
According to the federal CDC, “gatherings with family and friends who do not live with you can increase the chances of getting or spreading COVID-19.”
See: CDC’s guidance for holiday celebrations.
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