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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will hold a press briefing Wednesday to update the public on the state’s response to the coronavirus outbreak as it prepares to distribute a Covid vaccine, potentially later this week.
Earlier this week, Cuomo said the state might close indoor dining in New York City and slash capacity elsewhere across the state next week if hospitalization rates don’t stabilize. He added that it’s not inevitable that hospitalizations will continue to rise, but he believes they will.
And the governor reiterated that even more restrictions will be necessary if local hospitals are close to hitting maximum capacity as measured by a seven-day average of occupied hospital beds. If a region’s hospital capacity is expected to hit 90% within three weeks, meaning nine out of ten beds are filled, the state will implement a “shutdown” across the region.
“We are looking at hospitalization capacity, and if we don’t get the rate under control, you are going to overwhelm your hospitals. We will have to go back to shutdown,” he said Monday.
“You can’t overwhelm the hospital system. Overwhelming the hospital system means people die on a gurney in a hallway,” he said. “And the life you could have saved, you can’t save, because you don’t have the staff, you don’t have the doctor, you don’t have the nurse, and people die unnecessarily.”
Read CNBC’s live updates to see the latest news on the Covid-19 outbreak.
