The City of New York has been under siege as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. There currently has over 188,650 confirmed cases and has seen 9,385 of those infected dying as a result. As the spread is continuing to wreak havoc across the United States due to the poor decisions made by President Trump and many elected and state officials, it has seen many finally acting while others are still taking an irresponsible approach.
One that is acting accordingly is New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has instructed New Yorkers to not go outside and when they must, to cover their faces with masks or scarfs. This comes after previous instructions focused on only using masks, but as supplies dwindle, it now includes using homemade masks. Speaking on his comments during a Thursday press conformance, de Blasio said: “We’re advising New Yorkers to wear a face covering when you go outside and near other people, It can be a scarf, it can be something you create at home it can be a bandana.”
The Mayor also warned residents that wearing medical-grade masks that are in desperate shortage that they are making things harder for medical personal who are working the front lines. Adding to his comments, de Basse stated, “When you think of masks, you think of what our health care workers and first responders need and those precious supplies that we’re bringing in, those PPEs, that’s for them and all those people at the front line who need it.”
Dr. Oxiris Barbot, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner stated in respect to homemade masks, the less the fancy, the better and advised New Yorkers to keep on hand at least one face mask and preferably have several readily available.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week published new research relating to the spread that there were a number of clusters in Singapore that were triggered by those who were showing no signed and were asymptomatic. That report resulted in the Commissioner changing her position towards the virus due to its rapid spreading, and that people are often infected long before symptoms appear. During the press conference, Dr. Oxiris Barbot said, “The last 48 hours really is when our health leadership, our health department, has gotten the information and analyzed the information and provided this specific proposal so it’s literally just in the last days.”
Medical Equipment Desperately Needed By New York
New York’s Mayor on Wednesday said the city is in dire need of over 3 million N95 masks, more than 100,000 isolation gowns and 400 ventilators. He also said the city needs over 2 million surgical masks by Sunday in order to hospitals in the city to prepare for the next wave of infected patients that officials expect will begin on Monday. To date, over 1 million people have been infected worldwide, and at least 50,000 have died as a result based on recent data supplied by the Johns Hopkins University.
