New York state’s coronavirus caseload doubled overnight, to 22, as the mayor of the nation’s largest city implored the federal government Thursday to send more test kits for the new virus.
The newly diagnosed cases include two hospitalized, intensive-care patients in New York City and a hospitalized man in Long Island’s Nassau County, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
The other positive tests were in people with mild symptoms – or none at all – in Westchester County, where a cluster of cases emerged earlier in the week and a 50-year-old lawyer at the center of it has been hospitalized since last week.
“The number will continue to go up” as testing increases, the governor warned, adding that he expected “significant” spread through the public.
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Mayor Bill de Blasio said the two newly diagnosed patients in New York City, a man in his 40s and a woman in her 80s, are both in intensive care. The Long Island patient, a 42-year-old man, is not in intensive care.
De Blasio, a Democrat, urged the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to supply New York with more test kits and to speed the approval of tests that private companies may be developing.
“Our single greatest challenge is the lack of fast federal action to increase testing capacity,” he said. “Without that, we cannot beat this epidemic back.”
After an initial batch of test kits that the CDC sent to state and big city public health labs proved largely faulty last month, New York City and state officials pressed for permission for their labs to run their own tests.
The state got approval Saturday to run its own version of the test. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said Wednesday that the state lab is now able to run about 200 tests a day, and aiming for 1,000 daily.
New York City, meanwhile, got a new batch of CDC test kits. De Blasio said Wednesday that the current testing capacity was dozens of tests a day “and we need to get to hundreds, quickly.”
City and state officials have stressed for weeks that they expected the coronavirus that has sickened thousands around the world to make its way to New York, a major travel hub.
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(AP)
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10 Responses
YU released this today:
My Dear Friends,
Some good news this morning. Two tests of students who were considered at risk due to proximity, including roommate, came back negative. Chasdei Hashem.
I will continue to send updates later today.
Dr. Ari Berman
President, Yeshiva University
While I am glad and appreciate Yeshiva world is covering the Virus situation , they should take into account what Rabbi Hoffman just wrote about . Yes you are giving over accurate information but at the same time showing this posting with a picture of an ambulance rushing to a hospital creates images of panic which doesn’t help the situation . Lets us know the facts what is happening but please don’t dramatize it with pictures and big bold headlines .
Since the 2 YU students came back with negative results, why is Kollel Yom Rishion being cancelled this coming Sunday March 8th? when there is so much out there to learn about Purim.
There are probably a lot of people who have this virus but are not diagnosed. That means the fatality rate of this illness cannot be accurately calculated. It could be that this virus is less deadly than the flu. And the same way people do not panic when they hear someone in their shul or school has/had the flu, perhaps people should not be panicking as well about this virus. It is a given for both this virus and for the flu that those who have underlying health issues or the elderly are at higher risk to get pneumonia after contracting the flu or this virus, and thus it is more dangerous for them. I think we all need to calm down, and daven to Hashem that everyone who is sick, from anything, should have a refuah shelaima b’karov. And everyone else should stay well.
If these quarantines continue to be the norm, there will be no one davening with a minyan, no one learning Torah in groups, no one going to the mivkah, no one going to simchas or chas v’shalom funerals, no one doing bikur cholim and other mitzvos – do you think this is going to gain us Divine protection?
They should not be testing people without symptoms whats the point, so the state can get federal funding for nothing, there are 350 million people in the united states 160 are infected thats not a pandemic, its just absurd
At the Heart of this is MONEY. Money. Of Billions Dollars Requested by Politicians with friends who own labs, the techs who work there get $12 an hour. Where do the BILLIONS DOLLARS Go? Money needs to go Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Disease from Which Millions die each year. This new virus is affecting very very few people, and like the Flu, the elderly and sick get it severely, while most get mildly sick. It’s like a Manufactured crisis to get Federal Funding MONEY.
Gold, safek sakonah le’kulah?
it may be the case that those with respiratory issues are more at risk… but, does anyone have a kid (or perhaps yourself) with asthma? that’s a respiratory issue, and ridiculously common. and how about the BH plethora of pregnant women in our communities? the experts don’t even know how it could affect a fetus. it pays to be careful and not just play it down as a “bad flu”
Gold,
I believe your question is something that should be asked of a Gadol, not of the YWN audience. And frankly; I think a Gadol would say to follow advice, especially if it involves דינא במלכות
דינא דמלכותא