New York state has created an online portal to assign over 78,000 medical volunteers to its hospitals, a SUNY college official announced Tuesday.

The online portal will go live today, said Jim Malatras, president of SUNY Empire State College, at a media briefing with Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The portal will organize the medical volunteers the state has received so far by their region and area of expertise.

Volunteers could be assigned to state hospitals as soon as Thursday, Malatras said.

“We’re trying to prioritize the availability of the portal to the hospitals that need it the most right now,” Malatras said. “But we’re working very closely with the entire system to make sure we’re linking healthcare workers to those facilities.”

New York state has tested over 18,000 patients for the novel coronavirus last night, Cuomo said at the briefing. Cuomo said his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, has tested positive for the virus.

The state has confirmed 75,795 positive cases of the virus as of Tuesday, and 1,550 have died, Cuomo said. The novel coronavirus causes COVID-19, a respiratory disease that has infected at least 846,156 people and killed 41,494 worldwide.

The hospital system needs additional staff to relieve its current medical workers, who are overstressed and taking on too many shifts, Cuomo said.

“The problem is health care workers are working too much,” he said. “They’re under immense physical and emotional stress.”

State health officials are working to create quicker COVID-19 tests that people could take at home, Cuomo said. People who do not have the virus can find out sooner and return to work, he said.

Although they are under stress, hospitals are still giving proper care and attention to ICU patients who do not have COVID-19, said Howard Zucker, New York state health commissioner, at the briefing.

The governor said he’s working today to complete the state budget by tomorrow’s deadline. State employees will be paid as long as the budget is passed on time, he said.

New York state is working to identify the number of ventilators in each region and will continue to stockpile supplies in preparation for the height of the COVID-19 outbreak, Cuomo said. The supplies will be distributed across the state as needed, he said.

It is unclear when the virus will reach its peak in New York state Cuomo said. He gave projections anywhere from seven to 30 days.

“Nobody knows,” he said. “But it’s not going to be soon.”

Published on March 31, 2020 at 4:47 pm

Contact Sarah: scalessa@syr.edu | @sarahalessan