Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to clarify that hospitals are covered by the state mandate to keep a 90-day stockpile of PPE. New York City officials have set a similar goal to provide backup supplies to hospitals across the city, but are not covered by the state mandate. Local hospitals are still struggling […]
Ventilators
Posted inCovid-19
Wrong Masks and ‘Missing’ Ventilators: NYC’s Billion-Dollar COVID Gear Bungle
At the height of the pandemic, the city issued $1.4 billion in emergency, no-bid contracts for crucial medical equipment — and got the wrong masks and lost track of deliveries, records show. “Stop this s—t!” one bureaucrat cried during an online meeting.
Posted inCoronavirus
City Cancels $91 Million Ventilator Contract With De Blasio Donor
Need to know more about coronavirus in New York? Sign up for THE CITY’s daily morning newsletter. City Hall has canceled a $91 million emergency contract for ventilators and other medical equipment after the vendor failed to deliver the goods — even after receiving an initial $9.1 million payment in late March. Meanwhile, Mayor Bill […]
Posted inCoronavirus
Millions of N95 Masks NYC Ordered Weeks Ago for Public Hospitals Still MIA
Additional reporting by Ben Fractenberg Need to know more about coronavirus in New York? Sign up for our daily morning newsletter. Nearly 13 million virus-blocking N95 and similar face masks ordered in March for the city’s public hospitals and other emergency services have still not arrived as medical staff at Bellevue and other facilities plead […]
Posted inCoronavirus
Quest for COVID Gear Brings $119 Million Deal with de Blasio Donor
Additional reporting by Josefa Velasquez Need to know more about coronavirus in New York? Sign up for THE CITY’s daily morning newsletter. City Hall’s frantic hunt for protective masks and medical equipment to combat coronavirus led officials to sign emergency contracts totaling nearly $119 million with a firm run by a major donor to Mayor […]
Posted inCoronavirus
How NYC’s Emergency Ventilator Stockpile Ended Up on the Auction Block
This story was originally published by ProPublica. In July 2006, with an aggressive and novel strain of the flu circulating in Asia and the Middle East, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a sweeping pandemic preparedness plan. Using computer models to calculate how a disease could spread rapidly through the city’s five boroughs, experts […]
Posted inHealth
Hospitals Nearing ICU Bed Limits as COVID-19 Surges in NYC
Additional reporting by Additonal Reporting By Rachel Holliday Smith Need to know more about coronavirus in New York? Sign up for our daily morning newsletter. A key, ever-fluctuating variable in the grim daily calculus facing a city racing against time to treat a rising tide of COVID-19 patients is the number of intensive care unit […]
Posted inCoronavirus
Frontline NYC Medical Staffers Describe Daily Battle at Struggling Hospitals
Need to know more about coronavirus in New York? Sign up for our daily morning newsletter. Across a city on edge, doctors, nurses and lab technicians working the coronavirus front lines are embracing improvisation as a means of survival — finding new ways to make shrinking resources work against an enemy that claims more casualties […]
Posted inHospitals
One in Four NYC Hospital Coronavirus Patients Is Under Age 50
Need to know more about coronavirus in New York? Sign up for our daily morning newsletter. More than a quarter of hospitalizations related to the coronavirus crisis in New York City have been for patients under the age of 50, according to data provided by City Hall officials. But it’s people over 65 who are […]
Posted inHospitals
Trained Operators for Coronavirus Patient Ventilators Scarce in New York
Additional reporting by Will Welch Want to know more about coronavirus in New York? Sign up for our daily morning newsletter. Hospitals around New York and the nation are scrambling to get their hands on as many ventilators as possible to treat a rapidly increasing number of COVID-19 patients. But even if New York got […]