New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made an appearance on NBC's Today Show on Tuesday to speak about the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has forced the city to enact a quarantine. As of Tuesday morning, the death toll in New York City currently stands at 914, with 38,087 confirmed coronavirus cases still on the books, per the New York Post. With deaths attributed to COVID-19 rising exponentially in recent days, de Blasio doesn't expect the surge in cases to slow down. The mayor estimated that the worst of the pandemic would extend into May, and blamed "community spread" as the major reason for the extended fight.
"The data is what we're looking at all the time, making our decisions based on, but obviously, it means human lives, over 900 lives already lost in New York City. And what we're seeing is a sharp upturn over the last days, certainly the last few weeks... It's deeply seeded in our communities and we're going to see this all over the country, unfortunately."
As for what the "worst" could entail, de Blasio said that every hospital bed in New York City could potentially be needed by a COVID-19 patient.
"We have about 20,000 hospital beds in all of New York City — that's where we were, say, the beginning of this month, normal times. We project the potential that all of those beds, all 20,000, will have to be turned into intensive care beds to focus on COVID-19 patients who are really really sick."
