While coronavirus rages in the west and south of America, Elmhurst Hospital in Queens — only recently at the epicentre of the pandemic in New York and nationally — is in a tentative state of recovery.
At its height, lines of people queued outside, a refrigerated lorry was used as a makeshift morgue and ambulances brought in a stream of critically-ill patients.
Dr Stuart Kessler, director of emergency medicine, said: “I don’t think your worst nightmares would have included the intensity and degree of illness that we saw. I feel bad for the doctors in the rest of the US that are facing it, and dealing with this, but it was unimaginable.”
Now most patients are coming to emergency for non-coronavirus issues like strokes, trauma and heart attacks. On the worst day of the crisis in April, there were 6,377 cases in the city alone.
The following day, the fatality rate hit its peak at more than 800 probable and confirmed deaths. On Wednesday there were 275 confirmed new cases in the city and eight deaths across the state.
Dr Kessler says the threat of a second wave looms. “We’re preparing for the possibility that next week, next month or fall, or winter, when the flu hits and Covid could come back to New York.”
The city is gradually opening up. Once deserted streets are now dotted with cordoned-off areas where masked waiters serve customers at spaced out tables. Paul Downey, 43, director of operations of The Wild Son in East Village, said people are “excited” to come out.
He approves of the new outdoor dining allowances, saying it makes New York look like Paris. “When I was walking down the street the other night it felt a bit like Paris. I don’t see why it shouldn’t be allowed to continue.”
