As coronavirus pandemic testing ramps up, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced New York City's confirmed case count has doubled to 1,871 in 24 hours Wednesday, according to reports.
The news comes as Gov. Andrew Cuomo and de Blasio have been at odds at the mayor's desire to declare a "shelter in place" directive to his constituents.
Cuomo contends the drastic measure must come from the governor and not the mayor.
New Yorkers have already been restricted by bans on gatherings, bars, and limiting restaurants to takeout and delivery only.
Also, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration now says two screeners at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City have tested positive for the new coronavirus. That brings the total to 11 TSA officers who have tested positive around the country.
TSA announced the two cases at JFK on Wednesday. Both have not been on the job since last week.
The agency earlier reported a positive test by a checked baggage screener at Newark-Liberty International Airport.
The agency has been telling officers who may have come into contacted with an officer who tests positive over the past two weeks to self-isolate.
New York state and local officials as well as hospital executives are thinking about requisitioning massive spaces to make room for a flood of patients. The efforts are part of a tremendous push to cobble together additional space for a surge in patients before hospitals are overwhelmed.
In the near term, hundreds of beds are being added this week, with far more ambitious solutions under discussion. Hospital systems in and around the most populous U.S. city have already moved to free up existing beds and add more.
Since the weekend, the city has spelled out how it will add some 1,500 hospital beds to its current stock of about 20,000. In neighboring New Jersey, which entered the year with about 26,000 beds, state officials are adding 500 beds over the next few weeks and might add 300 more by reopening a hospital it closed in December.
The Navy ship, the USNS Comfort, is being reassigned to add 1,000 beds to the city's capacity. The Defense Department, in separate comments, said the ship is undergoing maintenance in Norfolk, Virginia, and would be ready to move up the coast in weeks, not days.
Once it docks on Manhattan's west side, it would take trauma and other non-virus patients, the Pentagon said. That would effectively free up hospital spaces elsewhere for treating severe COVID-19 cases, which Cuomo says could peak in 45 days.
Officials in New York and New Jersey have raised alarms that their medical facilities could be swamped if capacity is not added. In New York, Cuomo has issued an executive order to boost bed-counts statewide by 9,000, with 5,000 in the city.
Information from The Associated Press and Bloomberg was used in this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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