Coronavirus Update: Photos & Videos Taken Inside Area Hospitals Show What Health Care Workers Are Up Against
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Leaders in the tri-state area have been stressing the urgent need for medical supplies and additional staff, but now photos and videos from inside area hospitals are shining a new light on what health care workers are facing.
Images taken inside Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, New Jersey -- provided to CBS2 by the hospital -- offer an inside look at how they're battling the coronavirus there.
In some of the pictures taken by Jeff Rhode, doctors and nurses are suited up. You can only see the faces, or at least the eyes, of the people fighting the virus head-on.
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Many health care workers in New Jersey are now sick themselves. Gov. Phil Murphy put out a plea for volunteers Friday.
"If you have medical experience and wish to pitch in to help us get through this emergency, please sign up," he said.
Dr. Stavros Christoudias is a general surgeon and works at several hospitals, including Holy Name.
"What's even more alarming is knowing how many of my colleagues are home sick," he told CBS2's Alice Gainer.
Christoudias says New Jersey doctors are of particular concern because, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, New Jersey ranks third for active physicians age 60 or older.
"What horrifies me about our doctor workforce is that we're the oldest in the country by a lot. Not a little bit, by a lot," he said. "The doctors who go to work are very vulnerable."
As someone who performs emergency surgeries, Christoudias has another concern; he's worried about people who stay home to avoid the emergency room.
"What about the guy who never made it in? Just suffered at home with an appendix for five days, you know, that can be fatal," he said.
CORONAVIRUS: NY Health Dept. | NY Call 1-(888)-364-3065 | NYC Health Dept. | NYC Call 311, Text COVID to 692692 | NJ Health Dept. | NJ Call 1-(800)-222-1222 or 211, Text NJCOVID to 898211 | CT Health Dept. | CT Call 211
Back in New York, construction on the four temporary hospitals at the Javits Center is now complete. Gov. Andrew Cuomo toured it Friday.
The governor is also asking for the authorization from the president to construct four more temporary hospitals. One could potentially be located at the New York Expo Center in the Bronx, the others in the three other boroughs.
"One in Queens at the Aqueduct Racetrack site -- 100,000 square feet there. One in Brooklyn, what's called the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. It's owned by the Port Authority, but it's a wide open space -- 182,000 square feet. And in Staten Island, the College of Staten Island," Cuomo said.
In New York, 10,000 more health professionals -- retirees and students -- have signed up to volunteer, bringing the total of volunteers to over 62,000.
