Photo Courtesy of Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
President and CEO Mitchell Katz, NYC Health + Hospitals
By Michael V. Cusenza
“No more shutdowns.”
With those three simple words, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday made it clear that he’s learned from his first bout with the viral champ COVID-19.
“We can’t go through it again,” Hizzoner said. “In this case, we weather the storm because we were prepared with a high level of vaccination already. We are prepared with a strong healthcare system. We’re prepared to get through. We need to all work together now to get through these weeks to come out the other side, continue our recovery, but no shutdowns, because that would devastate the lives of so many New Yorkers.
Photo Courtesy of Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
City Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi, M.D.
“It’s going be a challenging few weeks,” the mayor continued, “there is no question about it. We’re seeing a big upsurge in cases. Thankfully in general, they seem more mild. And thankfully our healthcare system is well positioned in this city to deal with it. But it will be a tough few weeks and we need to understand that, and we need to do everything possible to address that. But look, this is going to be a temporary reality and I want to emphasize that. What we’re seeing so far from Omicron is a very fast upsurge and then goes back down again. It’s based on what we’ve seen in other parts of the world, we are preparing for that kind of very fast scenario. And that means we got to keep focused on the big picture, which is to keep this city moving forward. To remember, we got to keep building our recovery.”
City Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi, M.D., focused on Tuesday on the efficacy of booster shots.
“Over 1.7 million booster doses have already been administered in New York City and I thank each and every New Yorker who has stepped up to increase their own protection and reinforce our vaccination wall against this new wave, but we have more work to do, and we must do it quickly,” the City’s doctor said.
