page_title: COVID-19 pandemic in New York City
section_title: Shortages and policy changes
hierarchical_section_title: COVID-19 pandemic in New York City / Public health impact / Shortages and policy changes
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking north at emergency hospital in Central Park
context_page_description: The first case relating to the COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed in New York City in March 2020 by a woman who had recently traveled to New York City from Iran, a country already seriously affected by the pandemic at the time. Nearly a month later, the metropolitan area was the worst-affected area in the country, with its medical infrastructure overtaxed. By April, the city had more confirmed coronavirus cases than China, the U.K., or Iran, and by May, had more cases than any country other than the United States.
  On March 20, the governor's office issued an executive order closing down non-essential businesses. The city's public transportation system remained open but experienced crowding due to reduced transit service and an increase of homeless persons seeking shelter on the subway.
  By April, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers were out of work with lost tax revenues estimated to run into the billions. Low income jobs in the retail, transportation and restaurant sectors are especially affected. The drop in income, sales tax and tourism revenues including hotel tax revenue may cost the city up to $10 billion.
context_section_description: The New York City healthcare system continued to experience major shortages with its COVID-19 testing capacity. An alert sent out on April 11, 2020, by the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene stated that the city's hospitals are close to running out of cotton swabs used for COVID-19 testing. The same alert reminded the providers that only those patients admitted for hospitalization should be given COVID-19 tests.
  Some doctors have been trying to crowdsource tablets so patients can say goodbye to loved ones. The last contact patients have with their families was when they were dropped off at the hospital or taken by ambulance.
  Due to the demand from the pandemic on New York City hospitals, emergency medical services (EMS) personnel were ordered not to transport adult cardiac arrest cases to the hospital, if the EMS personnel were unable to restart the patient's heart at the scene. On April 21 this order was modified to "do not resuscitate", meaning EMS should no longer try to revive persons on scene.
caption: Field hospital in Central Park
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