- Direct: last minute of the coronavirus
The state of New York had confirmed until this Thursday almost 160,000 cases of coronavirus, already clearly surpassing Spain, which after the United States is the country with the most positives in the world, and establishing itself as the great global focus.
According to the latest official data, New York has 159,937 cases of COVID-19, compared to 152,446 infected in Spain and 143,626 in Italy.
The state had already momentarily overtaken Spain on the previous day, but with the dissemination of updated data this Thursday in Madrid, the country had once again come out ahead.
The latest figures for New York, with an increase of more than 10,000 positives in the last 24 hours compared to 5,756 in Spain, put it ahead again and, a priori, make it difficult for the same situation to occur again.
Thus, New York -which accumulates more than a third of all cases in the United States- consolidates itself as the great world epicenter of the coronavirus.
With a population of 19 million inhabitants, New York has about 815 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, well above the 326 in Spain, where about 47 million people live.
As for deaths, the New York state accumulates 7,067, compared to 15,238 deaths in Spain, but the outbreak in the United States is somewhat behind in time and New York has chained several days with daily death records.
On the last day, New York lost 799 people to the disease, more than in Spain, where 683 died, or in Italy, where there were 610.
In the United States as a whole - where some 330 million people live - more than 452,000 cases have been confirmed so far, well above the figures of any other country, and more than 16,000 deaths, more than in Spain but due to the moment less than in Italy, the most hit nation.
Central Park Field Hospital Fears "Second Peak"
Behind the white tents of the field hospital for patients with COVID-19 that stands in iconic Central Park in New York, a medical team works against the clock with needs "comparable" to those of a war and, although the figures indicate a possible stabilization of infections, this Thursday they asked not to let their guard down for fear of a "second peak".
The emergency center erected two weeks ago by the Christian organization Samaritan's Purse, in collaboration with the Mount Sinai hospital system, "is not in a war or disaster zone, but its level of need is comparable: the way the team, the number of patients ... "said Elliott Tenpenny, director of his International Health Unit, in a video conference.
With capacity for 68 patients, the hospital established on the grass was hosting 55 on Thursday, several of them in intensive care, and expected in the next few hours to receive a dozen more because Mount Sinai, with some 2,000 COVID-19 patients Spread across the city, "it's overloaded," added Brendan Carr, its president of Emergency Medicine.
At the Central Park field hospital, they have been discharged - and "they wanted to stay longer to encourage their neighbors," according to Tenpenny - but those responsible foresee that the hospitalizations will continue and rise despite the possible proximity of the peak, precisely because the perception that the hardest ends and the arrival of a spring that does not go unnoticed in the lungs of New York.
"Personally I have been observing that people go out more, some businesses also open, and there is fear of a reinfection because we have not really reached a peak. Governor Andrew Cuomo urges to stay home, not to leave so quickly," said the Vice President of Programs and Government Relations for Samaritan's Purse, Ken Isaacs.
"We believe there is a real risk of a second peak" of coronavirus, admitted this director of the organization, which oversees international aid projects and has worked on emergency missions in 120 countries for three decades.
For his part, Carr pointed out that this weekend, with the trees in bloom and good weather, more people were seen going outside at a time when there is "a slowdown in the rate at which patients arrive" at Mount Sinai, in A good part thanks to the imposition of social distancing in recent days, for which he warned that we should not "let our guard down."
"There seems to be a slowdown. But the hospitals are still full, they have continued to occupy their spaces and turn them into intensive care areas. Floors that used to be closed are now in operation. On the outside it does not seem so, but we are still at maximum capacity "explained the medical director.
The field hospital, coordinated by both institutions, poses the challenge of hosting infectious patients in the heart of the park, so its managers, on site and wearing masks, highlighted the work of its large team, which ranges from "logistics and management of the supply chain to control and prevention "to" maintain a security perimeter ".
Likewise, Isaacs applauded that the hospital has been incorporating toilets "from everywhere" - apart from medical license they are required to share "creed", but they claim to have "non-discrimination policies" regarding patients, who are also derived from Mount Sinai - and equated local staff with "warriors fighting a war".
"People look out their windows and applaud, it is a global phenomenon. But they are real people who are saving lives. The doctors, the nurses ... are risking their lives and putting themselves in danger. What we have here is a war" he emphasized.
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