New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) is projecting that the coronavirus outbreak in his state will peak in 45 days.
On Tuesday, Cuomo held a press brief to discuss the coronavirus and what could be expected over the course of the next two months. After speaking with health experts, Cuomo revealed he gathers New York may not reach its peak number of coronavirus cases for another 45 days.
He also offered a rough estimate of the number of hospital beds and ventilators that may be needed in the state of New York during the time.
Cuomo believes approximately 55,000 to 110,000 hospital beds —in addition to 18,600 to 37,200 intensive-care unit beds— will be needed to treat patients with the virus. Currently, the state of New York only has about 3,000 beds for intensive care units.
“We’re entering a new phase in all of this. We’ve talked about early detection, we’ve talked about testing, we talked about containment,” Cuomo said to reporters. “You see those numbers are going up. That means you’re moving towards a mitigation phase.”
The Democratic governor went on to share his perspective on the idea of “flattening” the coronavirus “curve.” He prefers to think of it as a “wave.”
“The concept is right: Flatten the curve, slow the spread so the health care system can handle it,” Cuomo said, adding, “[But] I don’t think of a curve. I think of a wave. And the wave is going to break, and the wave is going to break on the hospital system.”
Check out Cuomo’s full press conference below:
Gov. Cuomo says expert projections expect peak of coronavirus cases in NY in 45 days.
— Breaking News (@BreakingNews) March 17, 2020
Cuomo says state will need 55,000-110,000 hospital beds and 18,600-37,200 ICU beds at projected peak, and state currently has 53,000 hospital beds and 3,000 ICU beds. https://t.co/3sgN6oNcei
Cuomo’s latest news briefing comes just days after his CNN interview with his brother Chris Cuomo. At that time, Andrew Cuomo criticized President Donald Trump for labeling the coronavirus as a “foreign” virus despite cases already being reported in the United States. He also expressed concern about the coronavirus statistics citing the low testing capacity.
Without adequate testing, the United States faced a disadvantage determining the severity of the outbreak, nationwide.
There are currently more than 950 positive cases of coronavirus in the state of New York.