The death toll in New York City climbs as hospitals struggle to treat the severely ill. During the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, the first case of COVID-19 in New York was confirmed on March 1, 2020. As of April 5, 2020, there have been 122,031 confirmed cases in the state, and of those 4,159 people have died. New York has the highest number of confirmed cases of any state in the United States, with five times as many cases as neighboring New Jersey, the state with the second most confirmed cases. Nearly 45 percent of known national cases are in the state, with one quarter of total known US cases being in New York City.
March 1 saw the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in New York, a 39-year-old woman health care worker who lived in Manhattan.[8] She had returned from Iran on February 25 and had no symptoms at the time. She went into home isolation with her husband. On March 3, a second case was confirmed, a lawyer in his 50s who lives in New Rochelle, Westchester County, immediately north of New York City, and works in Midtown Manhattan. He had traveled to Miami in February and regularly visited Israel, but had not visited areas known to have widespread transmission of the coronavirus. Two of his four children had recently returned from Israel. After first feeling ill on February 22, he was admitted to a hospital in Westchester on February 27 and diagnosed with pneumonia, and released from isolation after testing negative for the flu. Instances of panic buying in New York were reported after this case was confirmed.
On March 4, the number of cases in New York increased to 11 as nine people linked to the lawyer tested as positive, including his wife, a son, a daughter, a neighbor, and a friend and his family. On March 5, Mayor de Blasio said that coronavirus fears should not keep New Yorkers off the subway, riding from Fulton Street to High Street in a public press attempt to demonstrate the subway's safety. On March 6, eleven new cases were reported bringing the state caseload to 33. All the new cases were tied to the first community transmission case, the lawyer. At the end of the day, an additional 11 new cases were reported by the governor, bringing the total caseload to 44, with 8 of the new cases in Westchester County, and 3 in Nassau County on Long Island. Also on March 6, an article appeared in the New York Post stating that while Mayor de Blasio assigned responsibility for the lack of N95 masks and other personal protective equipment to the federal government, the city never ordered the supplies until that date.
On March 7, Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency in New York after 89 cases had been confirmed in the state, 70 of them in Westchester County, 12 in New York City and 7 elsewhere. On March 8, the state reported 16 new confirmed cases and a total of 106 cases statewide. New York City issued new commuter guidelines amid the current outbreak, asking sick individuals to stay off public transit, encouraging citizens to avoid densely packed buses, subways, or trains. On March 9, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio announced that there were 16 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New York City. On March 10, Governor Cuomo announced a containment zone in the city of New Rochelle from March 12 to 25.
After trying to purchase 200,000 N95 masks on February 7, the Office of Emergency Management learned that vendors were out of stock. Emergency provisions of masks and hand sanitizers did not arrive until early March. According to The New York Post, one medical supply vendor with standing city contracts said that the initial requests for protective gear from the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) were bogged down by inefficient bureaucratic delays. One vendor said, "We'd send them a list of products we can deliver within 24, 48 hours", but on average it took 72 hours for the agency to place an order. He added "the city just moves so slow" when there was very high demand coming from hospitals and the private sector. According to the contractor, eight out of 10 supply orders could not be filled because DCAS did not pay on time, which a spokeswoman for NYC denied. The office of the comptroller approved 12 contracts with a total value of $150 million before the mayor's office took over the process on March 16. Mayor Bill de Blasio has said that the city may run out of supplies by April if the federal government does not send 3 million N95 masks, 50 million surgical masks, 15,000 ventilators and 45 million surgical gowns, gloves, and face shields. One EMS worker expressed frustration at being asked to wear the less effective surgical masks. The police union filed a complaint on March 13 due to NYPD officers not being given masks and other protective gear. A spokeswoman called the Police Benevolent Association's complaint "empty rhetoric".
Self-quarantines for persons who test positive or are symptomatic are not enforced due to a lack of resources. Several New York City area nurses have expressed concerns that patients are not complying with self-quarantine guidelines due to financial necessity or fear of losing their jobs. A New York State Nurses Association board member has expressed concerns that low-income patients who share rooms with other individuals may not be able to effectively self-isolate at their residences.
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