Coronavirus cases in New York City growing

NEW YORK - New York City has 62 coronavirus cases as of Thursday morning, up from 53 the night before, announced Mayor Bill de Blasio.

An FDNY EMS worker in Brooklyn is among them, the worker's union president said. Other local health care workers also have gotten the virus: A staffer at a Brooklyn nursing home was diagnosed last week in New Jersey, where he lives part-time.

The mayor said that more than 250 people have tested negative and the results of 195 tests are pending. Nearly 2,000 people are under voluntary quarantine and 30 are people in mandatory quarantine.

Public hospitals are ready to accommodate a spike in patients if that happens, Dr. Mitchell Katz, the CEO of NYC Health and Hospitals Corp., said at a news conference held at Bellevue Hospital.

"An intensive care bed is defined by the great nurse who is caring for the patient—it's not a physical space," Katz said. "If you give me a great nurse, as I have in Bellevue, I can turn any space into an intensive care space."

New York state now has the largest number of coronavirus cases of any state in the country.

The state's coronavirus caseload rose Thursday to 189 and now includes a key figure in managing busy New York City-area airports: Rick Cotton, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Some 6% of the New York patients are hospitalized, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, adding that most of them have underlying medical problems. Some have needed intensive care.

Meanwhile, the governor unveiled the state's own line of hand sanitizer, to be provided to government agencies. Sanitizer has been running short in commercial markets; New York's version is being made by prison inmates.

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With the Associated Press