NYC health officials tell Cuomo to lockdown the entire city due to 'perilous' COVID spike that they say will overwhelm the healthcare system as hospitalizations soar to 1,300

Cuomo on Thursday with a mock vaccine. He has vowed not to shut down the entire city again because the infection rate varies in each borough 

New York City health officials are calling on Governor Cuomo to shut down parts of the city claiming there is a 'perilous' city wide spike that will overwhelm hospitals. 

Councilman Mark Levine (D-Manhattan), who chairs the Council’s Health Committee; Councilwoman Carlina Rivera (D-Manhattan), chair of the Hospitals Committee; state Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx), chair of his chamber’s Health Committee and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan), chair of the Assembly’s Health Committee, all signed a letter demanding tougher restrictions. 

They want Cuomo to declare the entire city an 'orange zone' which would end indoor dining, reduce outdoor dining to 4 people at a table, and close non-essential businesses like gyms. 

It would also close all the schools and reduce religious services to a 33 percent capacity. 

There are now more than 4,442 people hospitalized across the state with COVID and according to the NYC officials, 1,300 of them are in the city. 

It has one of the lowest hospitalization per capita rate though in the state. 

0.02 percent of NYC's population is in the hospital with COVID, whereas that number is 0.05 percent in the Finger Lakes and 0.04 percent in Western New York.  

At the worst of the pandemic, there were 18,000 hospitalized across the state.  

There are more than 50,000 hospital beds across the state and this time, the entire hospital system has been brought together as one to spread the load of patients if one place becomes overwhelmed suddenly.  

Cuomo has vowed not to shut down the entire city again and says he'll do it by zip code if at all because the COVID problem in each borough is so different. 

In Manhattan, the test positivity rate is 2.56 percent whereas it is 6.30 percent in Staten Island, 4.43 in Queens, 3.98 in Brooklyn and 4.64 percent in the Bronx. 

Of the more than 4,000 people hospitalized across the state, more than 1,300 are in NYC

NYC has one of the lowest hospitalization per capita rate though in the state. 0.02 percent of NYC's population is in the hospital with COVID, whereas that number is 0.05 percent in the Finger Lakes and 0.04 percent in Western New York.

Overall, the citywide test positivity rate is 4.01 percent. 

Hospitalizations are rising across the city and the state and the officials say in their letter that unlike in the spring, when nurses and doctors came from other parts of the country to help, the entire country is now feeling the strain. 

'Covid is spiking in NYC. 

'Hospitalizations rising fast. We need dramatic action to slow this,' Levine tweeted. 

NYC TEST POSITIVITY

Manhattan: 2.56 % 

Staten Island: 6.3% 

Queens: 4.43% 

Brooklyn: 3.98% 

Bronx: 4.64% 

In the statement, the politicians said: 'To avoid over-crowded hospitals and needless loss of life, we are calling for immediate action to slow the spread of COVID-19.

'Specifically: declaration of an orange zone covering all five boroughs in New York City.

'Closure of non-essential office spaces, with an advisory, that those New Yorkers who are able to work from home should work from home.

'Targeted neighborhood measures are not sufficient at this point, because community spread is now city-wide and because New Yorkers are highly mobile, frequently moving between neighborhoods.

'The mounting COVID-19 threat in New York  City leaves us no choice: we must act now to save lives,' they said.  

Cuomo and the state department of health officials said on Friday that unlike in the spring, people are spending less time in the hospital and are less sick.

Not only is the death rate lowering, people are spending five or six days in the hospital on average now, whereas they were spending 11 days in the hospital in the spring. 

In March and April, 85 percent of the patients in the ICU had to intubated. That rate has now almost halved to 45 percent.