Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Saturday that the first coronavirus death in New York State was an 82-year-old woman from Brooklyn with preexisting conditions. The woman was taken to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center on March 3 as one of the first coronavirus cases in New York City.
Since the first coronavirus case was confirmed in New York on March 1, the state’s total number of infected rose to 950 as of March 16, with 463 of them in New York City, and there are seven deaths reported. As the number of cases rises, hospitals are taking more serious precautions to protect the patients and their staff.
“We have no patients who tested positive at the moment, but that might change,” Ramon Rodriguez, president and CEO of the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, 374 Stockholm Street in Bushwick, told Kings County Politics yesterday.
Rodriguez explained that they are closely monitoring all the updates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the New State Department of Health as well as the Greater New York Hospital Association.
Wyckoff Heights Medical Center limits the visiting hours and requires visitors to answer the questions asked by staff members standing at every entrance to see if the visitors are experiencing any symptoms of the novel coronavirus.
If the visitors show any symptoms, they are given surgical masks and taken into a special area of the hospital. According to Rodriguez, it is important to separate those with COVID-19 to protect the other patients and the hospital’s staff.
“It depends on the condition of the patient who tests positive to determine whether they will be hospitalized or required to self-quarantine,” Rodriguez said. He highlighted the importance of social distancing, and said that the disease was more dangerous for those with preexisting conditions.
The Brooklyn Hospital Center, 121 DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, has been hosting more people in their emergency units lately, due to the rise of the pandemic. The hospital currently has two confirmed cases of COVID-19, and it is sharing this information with the general public frequently.
“We are setting up a tent outside our ED/ER which will be operational on Wednesday. This will serve as a place to pre-screen patients for COVID-19 so that we can make the process more efficient and free up our ED/ER resources,” said Kim Flodin, senior director of marketing and communications at the Brooklyn Hospital Center.
The Brooklyn Hospital Center has also been limiting visiting hours and closed some of its entranceways to better prescreen people coming to the hospital.
Coney Island Hospital, 2601 Ocean Parkway in Coney Island, has no patients that tested positive for coronavirus in their facility yet, and it reported that it has not seen any unusual increases in its emergency department.
“Our staff and leadership have participated in numerous drills and prep sessions to prepare for Covid-19. We have planned for numerous scenarios and have a plan for various outcomes. We are taking numerous precautions to protect our patients and staff members,” said Rosanne Mottola who works at the public affairs department of Coney Island Hospital.
According to its new policy, there are no visitors allowed in the emergency department of the Coney Island Hospital, excluding pediatric emergencies. Similar to the other hospitals, all of the visitors are being screened prior to entering the patients’ areas.
The phone number for New York State’s novel coronavirus hotline is 1-888-364-3065
