BRONX TIMES R 28 EPORTER, DECEMBER 4-10, 2020 BTR
Montefi ore Hospital File photo
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
Detectives are investigating the
death of a Bronx woman whose body
was found at the bottom of a stairwell
inside an apartment building on
Saturday night.
The grim discovery occurred at
8:12 p.m. on Nov. 28, when offi cers from
the 48th Precinct responded to a home
at 2173 Clinton Ave. in Belmont for a
wellness check.
Upon arriving at the scene, the cops
discovered an unconscious and unresponsive
59-year-old woman lying at
the bottom of the stairs. Responding
EMS units pronounced her dead at the
scene; police have withheld her identity,
pending family notifi cation.
EMS brought the woman’s body
to the Medical Examiner’s offi ce for
an autopsy to determine the cause
of death.
The investigation is ongoing,
police said.
BY MARK HALLUM
With hospitalizations on the
rise, Governor Andrew Cuomo rallied
for resources for medical centers
to increase capacity, considering
lockdowns and suspending
elective surgeries
The governor invoked Sun Tzu’s Art
of War – as well as A.J. Parkinson – in
a Monday press conference in making
an announcement that outlined a plan
going into the holiday season which
health offi cials have warned could result
in strain for medical staff.
“COVID is shifting the battlefi eld
dramatically and we have entered a
new phase, it came with the colder
weather,” Cuomo said. “We now have a
holiday surge on top of a fall surge.”
As such, yellow, orange, and red
zones will not be established based on
new indicators: hospitalization rate,
death rate, case rate, available hospital
beds, available ICU beds, available
staff, PPE, and equipment availability.
Northwell, Montefi ore, and NYC
Health and Hospitals will all begin
sharing the workload from the surge
already underway.
“Let’s just end elective surgeries
now, and we’ll make it simpler. No patient
wants to be in an overwhelmed facility
because you’re getting less care,
the staff is stretched thin. It’s in the
patient’s best interest to distribute the
patient load over the system. We’re not
going to live through the nightmare of
overwhelmed hospitals again,” Cuomo
said. “We’re going to have a problem
in the hospitals, I’m telling you
right now.”
According to Cuomo, 65% of all
cases can be traced back to social gatherings
in homes – limited to 10 people
– leading to the decision to not impose
more restrictions on indoor dining
as they observe the spread taking
place elsewhere.
Out of concern for staffi ng shortages,
Cuomo is calling into action a
strategy from the spring surge and
mandating that hospitals compile a
list of retired nurses and doctors who
may be able to return to service in the
coming weeks.
Cuomo added that he was more
concerned that hospitals would run
short on staff before they run short
on beds, a seemingly different reality
from expectations in the spring which
indicated that capacity would be
strained considerably.
Hospitals are currently required
to have a 90-day supply of PPE which
Cuomo believes will help avoid hospitals
like Elmhurst in Queens from being
inundated with patients and not
enough simple provisions like masks.
As of Monday, the total in hospitals
with COVID-19 was 3,532
while the statewide infection rate is
about 4.57%. There was a total of 54
deaths on Sunday, according to the
governor’s offi ce.
Cuomo gives hospital
COVID directives
Bronx woman found dead
Emergency measures put in place as
coronavirus cases continue to rise