Coronavirus Shutdown: Hospitals To Resume Elective Surgeries In Some New York Counties
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Some hospitals in New York that are not confronting overwhelming COVID-19 cases will begin allowing outpatient elective surgeries, about seven weeks after such procedures were halted as part of the state's pandemic prevention measures.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the decision during his coronavirus update briefing on Tuesday morning in which he announced there would be limited regional reopenings moving forward.
"You have many hospitals that are very quiet, some hospitals are actually laying off people, believe it or not in the middle of this, because they have no patients," said Cuomo.
The loosening of the hospital bed policy will not apply to areas still struggling with large numbers of COVID-19 cases such as New York City or Westchester, Rockland, Erie, Dutchess or Albany counties.
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"We still need to protect those hospital beds in case we need them for COVID or testing," the governor said.
The status of other types of business reopening have yet to be determined.
"We operate as one state, but we also have to understand variations," said Cuomo. "You do want to get this economy open as soon as possible, and if a situation is radically different in one part of the state than another part of the state, take that into consideration."
