There was some improvement in the number of New Yorkers needing ventilators on Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday morning.
The number of New Yorkers intubated across the city’s public hospital system was 830 on Sunday, who remained stable through Monday, the mayor said.
“We want to report something good like we want to report the tough stuff, but it’s too early to call it a pattern or trend…we don’t want to give people the wrong sense of things,” said de Blasio during a press conference outside of lower Manhattan’s P.S. 1 Alfred E. Smith School which now serves as one of the city’s 435 feeding stations.
“It’s buying us some time to get more ventilators and to get ahead of things,” the mayor added.
As of 9:30 a.m. March 7, the number of novel coronavirus cases in New York City jumped to 72,324 with the number of reported deaths due to complications from contracting the virus reaching 3,202, according to the New York City Department of Mental Health and Hygiene.
Queens still leads the way as the borough with the largest number of reported cases at 24,115, followed by Brooklyn with 19,499 reported cases, the Bronx with 14,421 cases, Manhattan with 10,098 cases and Staten Island with 4,154 cases.
“This is a testament that social distancing and sheltering in place is clearly having an impact,” said de Blasio. But he warned that New Yorkers should not become complacent. “No one should let down their guard, no one should stop taking precautions.”
