The deaths of the patients took place over the last 24 hours, but NYC Health and Hospitals/Elmhurst said in a statement that number is consistent with the number of Intensive Care Unit patients being treated there.
“Staff are doing everything in our power to save every person who contracts Covid-19,” the statement said.
Elmhurst is at the center of the crisis, the statement said, and staff is working to overcome the overwhelming numbers.
“The frontline staff are going above and beyond in this crisis, and we continue surging supplies and personnel to this critical facility to keep pace with the crisis,” the statement said.
“We are literally increasing the effective capacity of the hospital on a daily basis by sending more doctors, nurses, ventilators and PPE to meet demand.”
New York has ordered residents to stay at home to curb the spread of the virus and hopefully ease pressures on healthcare systems. And though Gov. Andrew Cuomo pointed to Westchester County — home to the state’s first severe outbreak in New Rochelle — as a marker for the effectiveness of social distancing, cases continue to climb.
Estimates from Sunday showed coronavirus hospitalizations were doubling every 2 days, he said. But Monday’s estimates showed hospitalizations were doubling every 3.4 days, and Tuesday’s estimates showed hospitalizations were doubling every 4.7 days.
Cuomo warned that the rest of the nation could see numbers like those in his state.
“Where we are today, you will be in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks or six weeks,” he said. “What we do here will chart the course.”
CNN’s Eric Levenson, Elizabeth Jospeh and Linh Tran contributed to this report.