FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM APRIL 2, 2020 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3
сoronavirus
Queens leaders send letters to Trump
requesting resources for Elmhurst Hospital
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BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
aacevedo@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Queens Councilman Francisco Moya
and Manhattan Councilwoman Carlina
Rivera are urging President Donald
Trump and U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar
to send hospital beds, ventilators and
the intensive care staff needed to operate
them to NYC Health + Hospitals/
Elmhurst immediately.
Moya and Rivera, chair of the Council’s
Committee on Hospitals, sent a letter to
Trump and HHS on March 26, as reports
of an overwhelmed Elmhurst Hospital
continue to mount.
“Th e conditions at Elmhurst and
Queens Hospitals are grave,” their letter
reads. “A recent spate of news reports
provides a glimpse of the dire scenes front
line health care workers are experiencing.
COVID-19 patients are dying because the
hospital does not have the resources to
treat them.”
Queens Patch fi rst reported that the
hospital is running at “more than 125 percent
capacity compared to its typical 80
percent capacity rate” on Tuesday, March
24. THE CITY then reported that 13 people
had died in a 24-hour period.
Th e New York Times later
shared a look inside the hospital
as told by an Emergency
Room doctor, who said they
wanted to show how strained
the hospital is due to a surge
of patients with confi rmed
coronavirus cases and a lack
of resources to treat them.
Th e doctor said they “want
people to know that this is
bad … people are dying.”
In Moya and Rivera’s letter,
they note how Queens
has the fewest hospital beds
per capita compared to
other boroughs — with just
1.66 beds per 1,000 people,
according to a February
report by the Queens borough
president.
Th ey add that Queens only
has two municipal hospitals
while Manhattan, Brooklyn and the
Bronx have three. Th is isn’t off set by hospitals
outside the municipal hospital system,
including NYC Health + Hospitals
locations, as Queens has just nine acute
care facilities, while Manhattan has 20 and
Brooklyn has 15.
Moya admits this is particularly personal
to him as he was born in the Elmhurst
Hospital and later worked there before
representing it in his Council District 21.
“We have no doubt Elmhurst and
Queens Hospitals’ award-winning staff
can and will save lives, but they need
the proper tools to do so,” the letter
reads. “Th e longer these hospitals wait
for resources, the more people will die in
Queens. For many, it’s already too late.”
On Thursday night,
Congresswomen Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez and Grace
Meng sent a joint letter to
Trump, adding their voices
to the call for the president
to prioritize transfer of
personal protective equipment
and ventilators from
national stockpile to Elmhurst
Hospital.
“We entreat you to promptly
deploy immediate necessary
resources to decrease the
intensity and mitigate longterm
harm of COVID-19,”
Meng and Ocasio-Cortez
wrote. “We urge you to
address the needs required at
Elmhurst Hospital.”
Trump questioned New
York City’s need for 30,000
ventilators, which Gov.
Andrew Cuomo has called for, in an interview
with Fox News host Sean Hannity on
Th ursday night.
“I don’t believe you need 40,000 or
30,000 ventilators,” Trump said. “You
go into major hospitals sometimes and
they’ll have two ventilators and now all
of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order
30,000 ventilators?’”
MTA postpones all Queens
bus redesign meetings in April
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com
@jenna_bagcal
Th e MTA postponed several bus
redesign meetings scheduled for next
month due to ever-present coronavirus
concerns.
Th e meetings were originally scheduled
for dates in April in Bay Terrace,
Roosevelt Island, Oakland Gardens
Middle Village and Glen Oaks. Earlier
this month, the MTA also postponed
two March meetings
in Whitestone and at
North Shore Towers.
Earlier this week,
northeast Queens
officials including
Assemblyman
Edward Braunstein
and Councilman Paul
Vallone confi rmed the postponement
of the April 2 meeting at the Bay
Terrace Gardens Jewish Center.
“Th e April 2nd MTA Workshop at
the Bay Terrace Garden Jewish Center
has been POSTPONED. As is the case
with the postponed March 18th &
19th Workshops in #Whitestone and
#NorthShoreTowers, the @MTA has
assured us these dates will be rescheduled.
Please stay posted,” Vallone
tweeted.
Th e MTA’s site shows that the other
meetings have also been rescheduled.
Prior to the postponements, the MTA
had co-hosted 29 meetings in Queens
neighborhoods across the borough.
In letters sent out to “community
partners” the agency said that they
would be looking into exploring digital
technology to communicate during
these times.
REUTERS/Stefan Jeremiah
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
U.S. Navy photo by
MC2 Sara Eshleman
/WWW.QNS.COM
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