NYC Mayor Eric Adams held a press conference at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens on Wednesday, January 5th to announce a three-point plan to provide desperately needed recovery resources for hospitals and healthcare workers during an unprecedented rise in COVID-19 cases.
“We are going to surge funds through every part of our healthcare network,” Adams said.
His plan includes $27 million in loan funding to support safety net hospitals through the NYC COVID-19 Hospital Loan Fund made available by Goldman Sachs; second, he is going to allocate $111 million of support for the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation with partial funds from FEMA; and third, he’s going to expand staffing and support at the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene.
The mayor learned that a large number of resources were being returned to the federal government from various states because they were not drawing down the money fast enough. He said that we are not going to allow that to happen and that he will make sure every dollar located and directed to the city is going to get used.
“We’re sending nothing back to Washington, DC. We’re going to make sure that it stays in our city,” Adams said. He added that the money will be used to address staffing shortages and ensure that each and every hospital in NYC has the resources they need to be fully staffed to provide top quality care.
This announcement came after NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams held a virtual media availability on Tuesday, December 28th “to call on city and state governments to immediately allocate additional resources to hospitals and healthcare workers to keep them safe and prevent New York’s overburdened hospitals from being overwhelmed.” Williams emphasized the need for better communications to address behaviors to encourage people to get vaccinations, wear masks, stay away from congregate spaces and wash hands, which Adams spoke about at the press conference.
“We have the right tool to go against the formidable opponent of COVID,” Adams said as he emphasized the importance of vaccinations and booster shots. “You’re less likely to be hospitalized, a burden on your family to infect your family members, to have our cities close down instead of recovering, so it’s imperative that we encourage people to do that.”
