April 6, 2020 BARRON’S 21
BY JOSH NATHAN-KAZIS
T
he grand entrance to Mount Sinai Hospital on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, a glass-ceilinged
atrium designed by I.M. Pei, was transformed into a hospital ward this past week, as
workers built rooms for patients out of construction tarp stretched over metal frames.
Across the city, relief workers and soldiers set up emergency hospital beds on a Navy
ship, in a convention center, and in Central Park, and prepared to put more in a tennis
stadium and a cruise terminal, as the number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients in the five
boroughs topped 10,000.
Under normal conditions, New York City has just 20,000 hospital beds. State officials are asking
hospitals like Mount Sinai to increase their capacity by 50% or more.
“Hospital rooms are being built everywhere,” says Dr. Brendan Carr, chairman of emergency medi-
cine for the Mount Sinai Health System. “A new unit will open at [Mount Sinai Hospital]; they will call
the transfer center; it will be full instantly.”
Surgeries and outpatient clinics at Mount Sinai have been effectively shut down, so surgical teams
THE RACE
TO CONTROL
A PANDEMIC
The doctors at the heart of the fight in New York haveadvice for other cities and states: be aggressive
about social distancing. Get beds and supplies ready.And be prepared to answer some difficult questions.
Illustration byALVARO DOMINGUEZ