On Thursday, the number of people hospitalized for Covid-19 in New York State reached 6,147, which is not seen since mid-May and is more than six times the number of patients hospitalized for the disease two months ago.
On Thursday, the state reported that the percentage of new york people who tested positive for the disease in the whole state was 5.3%, down from 6.2% the previous day. Mayor Bill de Blasio of new york said that the hospitalization rate per 100,000 people is 3.06, which is much higher than the two thresholds set by new york.
This increase worries state and local officials. Howard Zuck, New York State Health Commissioner, said in a letter to the hospital on Wednesday that the number of hospitalized patients will continue to increase in the next three weeks, and "the capacity of the hospital will be a major battle."
The state has informed hospitals for several weeks to make plans so that no hospital is overwhelmed, which happened in some hospitals in spring.
The state has instructed hospitals to balance the number of patients in the whole system and make plans to transfer patients between non-affiliated hospitals when necessary. Systems (including large hospital systems) have been required to consider smaller safety nets and independent hospitals (which will usually have no medical insurance and medical services covered by Medicaid) in their load balancing plans.