As covid-19 cases have been increasing in New York city, it has become a need for re-opening the field hospital.
As of now, there is a temporary facility at Staten Island University that’s been operating from early April until the end of June during the initial action against the infection, authorities said.
On Tuesday or Wednesday, the first patients to enter this re-opened field are expected to arrive. Arrangements for 108 patients have been made and they are prepared that this could expand to 250 if needed.
According to data from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the number of new cases discovered on Staten Island between Nov 14 ranged from 102 to 165.
On September 7th and October 11th, the number of new cases those days were 12,19, and 14 respectively.
On Monday, President of State Island Borough, James Oddo, took his own constituents to task.
“We control our own destinies and we’re not doing as good enough job as we should be,” Oddo told NBC News on Monday.
“This is about personal responsibility. This is a borough that likes to talk about personal responsibility in a larger, global, political context. This is about us. This is about our own behavior.”
Dr. Brahim Ardolic, executive director of Staten Island University Hospital, indentified this as a “break down in social distancing rules and mask wearing” in late October and early November. But he’s hopeful Staten Island residents are adjusting their behavior in the wake of this recent case surge.
“I think there is a realization that there is a sense of urgency,” Dr. Ardolic said. “The problem is that we went down in cases so dramatically (in early summer) and stayed so low for so long, there was a lull. People lost that natural fear and concern.”
This field hospital was to open as a long-term psychiatric care facility. However, as the pandemic came by, it was quickly utilized for Covid-19 care and a certain space was set aside considering a spike in cases from 2020-2021.
On Monday, New York Govt, Andrew Cuomo, classified the Swaths of Staten Island as yellow and orange zones.
That sort of classification was necessary so that limitations on business operations could be monitored and also there could be limitations on the number of people allowed to gather at a place.
Cumo said that the number of covid-19 patients have drastically increased after Nov 2nd.
