Latest COVID spike isn’t swamping NYC hospitals like before
Associated PressNEW YORK — Soaring COVID-19 case numbers, long testing lines and event cancellations might feel a bit like déjà vu, but so far New York City hospitals aren’t seeing a repeat of the surges that swamped emergency rooms early in the pandemic. The state reported Saturday that nearly 22,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday — eclipsing the previous day’s mark for the highest single-day total for new cases since testing became widely available. Mount Sinai Health System’s emergency rooms are seeing about 20% more patients — with all conditions — in recent days, according to Dr. Eric Legome, who oversees two of the network’s seven ERs. Northwell, the state’s largest private healthcare system with nearly two dozen hospitals in and around New York City, had about 400 COVID-19-positive patients as of Friday — up from around 300 a few weeks ago, but a fraction of the 1,350 at one point last January, to say nothing of the 3,500 in early spring 2020.