THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Tuesday, December 1, 2020 |A12A
Holiday revelers, take note:
You can still see the Rockefel-
ler Center Christmas Tree this
year, but don’t plan on gazing
for long.
New York City Mayor Bill de
Blasio and Tishman Speyer, the
real-estate company that owns
and manages Rockefeller Cen-
ter, announced pandemic-re-
lated safety protocols Monday
for visitors. Chief among them:
a five-minute viewing limit.
Visitors also must be pre-
pared to line up to take their
turn at designated viewing
pods, spaced 6 feet apart, with
no more than four people al-
lotted per pod, according to a
Tishman Speyer spokeswoman.
If the line is long, visitors can
sign up for a virtual queue and
will be alerted when it is time
to return for viewing.
The tree will be open to vis-
itors on Thursday through
early January and will be
lighted from 6 a.m. to mid-
night daily. The lighting cere-
mony, an event that normally
draws big crowds, is set for
Wednesday, but will be closed
to the public this year.Cancer Center. There, Ms.
Smith said, colleagues noted
her gentle manner with pa-
tients, and urged her to pur-
sue a career in nursing. She
said she told colleagues, “I
don’t do bodily fluids.”
And then one day, recalled
Ms. Smith, a man asked to use
her desk phone. He became
woozy and, as she tried to
help him find a place to lie
down, he vomited all over her.
All she could think to do was
to reassure the man. After
some weeks of introspection,
she decided to go to nursing
school and enrolled in 2009.
“This man changed my life
and I never got his name,”
said Ms. Smith.
Diane Stover, a pulmonolo-
gist at Memorial Sloan Ketter-
ing, said nursing was an ideal
avenue for Ms. Smith and one
she encouraged.
“She was so interested in
helping patients in any way
she could,” Dr. Stover said.“She just went the extra mile.”
Ms. Smith started out in a
medical-surgical unit at Lenox
Hill. When Covid-19 hit, she
was leading the hospital’s be-
havioral-health unit with some
40 people. That unit was con-verted to care for Covid-19 pa-
tients, with Ms. Smith taking
over the management. This
past week, she was told that
she will likely return to her
role in behavioral health in
January, she said.The skills needed to care
for psychiatry patients have
been relevant during Covid-19,
Ms. Smith said. Patients are
isolated, vulnerable and
scared, and families of those
patients are scared and sad,
she said. Colleagues, too, need
more emotional support. Ms.
Smith is part of a team at the
hospital trained to talk to and
care for colleagues during
times of stress or trauma. This
can be heavy work, she said,
and in therapy she is working
on how to practice self-care.
Because of Covid-19, Ms.
Smith has returned to her
Catholic faith, attending vir-
tual Mass at Church of St.
Benedict in the Bronx, where
she went to Catholic school
and where her parents and
grandparents worshiped. She
starts her shifts with an “Our
Father” and a “Hail Mary.”
“In the last nine months
I’ve prayed more than I have
in the last 20 years,” she said.New York Gov. Andrew
Cuomo on Monday ordered
hospitals in the state to in-
crease their bed count and
identify additional staff as the
number of Covid-19 hospital-
izations reached a level not
seen since late May.
Mr. Cuomo said he would
issue broad regional closure
orders—similar to what was
put in place in the spring—if
hospitals in a given part of the
state become overwhelmed.
The decision to impose local-
ized restrictions will now in-
clude data on local hospitaliza-
tions in addition to the
percentage of positive tests,
Mr. Cuomo said. Officials didn’t
immediately say exactly how
hospitalization data would fac-
tor into their analysis, or
whether it would accelerate orGREATER NEW YORK
slow the creation of more zones.
But the governor said most viral
spread isn’t occurring in
schools, restaurants or stores,
but at residential gatherings.
Of the nearly 149,000 tests
reported to the state on Sun-
day, 4.6% were positive, state
officials said. It is the highest
positivity rate since May 18.
The number of Covid-19 hospi-
talizations was 3,532 on Sun-
day; it was 429 on Aug. 29.
“In the new battlefield, hos-
pital capacity is the top con-
cern,” Mr. Cuomo said.
He has eschewed broad-
based restrictions this au-
tumn, favoring a targeted ap-
proach in which activities
were limited in certain areas
according to color-coded rules.
The state would declare an
“orange zone”—in which in-
door dining is banned, fitness
centers and hair salons must
shut and schools close for in-person instruction—in popu-
lous areas like New York City if
the average positivity rate tops
3% as calculated by the state.
A “red zone,” which closes
all nonessential businesses, is
declared when the average
positivity rate tops 4%.
New York City Mayor Bill de
Blasio had warned on Nov. 19
that an “orange zone” could be
declared across the city
shortly after last week’s
Thanksgiving holiday. Mr.
Cuomo said this would depend
on the rate of infection and the
level of Thanksgiving mingling.
According to the state, New
York City’s seven-day average
positivity rate was 2.9% as of
Sunday. “Our positivity rates are
going to be surpassed in a mat-
ter of time. They were all best-
case-scenario and artificially
low,” Mr. Cuomo said Monday.
The governor also has said
he wants schools to remainopen, particularly those serv-
ing students in kindergarten
through eighth grade. He said
New York City’s plan to reopen
elementary schools starting
Dec. 7 was “the right idea.”
Under the plan announcedMonday, hospitals would be
required to balance the patient
load across all the facilities in
their network and must pre-
pare to increase the number of
beds they have available by
50%. State officials said hospi-
tals should start identifying
retired doctors and nurses sothey could increase their staff.
Mr. Cuomo said he isn’t
concerned about hospitals ex-
panding bed space, but having
enough personnel.
Mitchell Katz, president and
CEO of New York City’s public
hospital system, Health + Hos-
pitals, said about a third of the
intensive-care units are avail-
able. And while the number of
new Covid-19 cases is growing,
it is in a linear fashion and not
exponential, as it was in the
spring. “Right now, we feel
OK,” said Dr. Katz, adding that
the area of vulnerability in this
next potential surge is staffing.
In Erie County, which in-
cludes Buffalo, the state will or-
der an end to elective surgeries
at hospitals effective Friday.
The need to step up hospi-
tal capacity comes as some
nurses represented by the New
York State Nurses Association
have raised concerns aboutstaffing and the availability of
personal protective equipment
at some hospitals, according
to a union spokesman.
Nurses at Albany Medical
Center and Montefiore New
Rochelle Hospital, for example,
are planning to walk off the
job Tuesday. Both groups are
negotiating labor contracts.
Marcos Crespo, the senior
vice president of community
affairs for Montefiore, said the
New Rochelle Hospital would
remain open, but will enact
contingency plans, including
relocating patients to other fa-
cilities to ensure their safety.
Albany Medical Center
president and chief executive,
Dennis P. McKenna, said the
hospital has taken the neces-
sary steps to ensure continued
and uninterrupted operations
and “we are and have been
comprehensively prepared for
this event.”BYJIMMYVIELKIND
ANDMELANIEGRAYCEWESTHospitals Gear Up for Rise in Virus Cases
Hospitals, however, can’t
rely on the army of traveling
nurses and doctors who came
to New York in the spring. And
unlike then, hospitals are plan-
ning to keep up general medi-
cine and elective procedures
while caring for Covid-19 pa-
tients.
Many health-care workers
are also suffering from post-
traumatic stress disorder, and
worker burnout is a concern
among hospital executives
from New York City health
systems. Some nurses repre-
sented by the New York State
Nurses Association have raised
concerns about staffing and
the availability of personal
protective equipment at some
hospitals. Nurses at Albany
Medical Center and Mon-
tefiore New Rochelle Hospital,
for example, have plans to
walk off the job Dec. 1.
Ms. Smith said she hasn’t
had to worry about the avail-
ability of personal protective
equipment and largely feels
supported by Northwell
Health, the health-care system
that operates Lenox Hill. Ei-
leen Toback of the New York
Professional Nurses Union,
which represents staff nurses
at Lenox Hill, said the system
has a good stock of personal
protective equipment and has
offered mental-health services.
Ms. Smith arrived at Lenox
Hill nine years ago. The oldest
of six in an Irish-Italian family
and the daughter of a nurse,
Ms. Smith initially set out to
work in broadcast journalism.
She said she passed on a job
from a major news organiza-
tion, thinking another job
would materialize. It didn’t.
To pay the bills, she said
she took an administrative job
at Memorial Sloan KetteringAbout six weeks ago, Erin
Smith got the sinking feeling
that a new surge of Covid-19 in-
fections had hit New York City.
The coronavirus unit that
she oversees at Manhattan’s
Lenox Hill Hospitalwas full,
with very sick patients, includ-
ing some who eventually died.
It stayed that way for two to
three weeks before almost
emptying. Ms. Smith, a 39-
year-old nurse manager, said
she estimates it will be full
again this week.
The mood inside the hospi-
tal is anxious, but hopeful, she
said, but a potential repeat of
the experience in March and
April, when Covid-19 first
ripped through the city, is pet-
rifying.“It was a hella six months,”
said Ms. Smith. “Nobody
wantstodoitagain.”
New cases of Covid-19 are
rising in New York City as well
as the number of people re-
quiring hospitalization.
Public-health experts and
health-care executives say
they believe the city’s second
surge of Covid-19 cases won’t
be as bad as the first, with
fewer people becoming sick
and fewer deaths. Hospital
systems are now more pre-
pared and better able to care
for patients through treatment
protocols, they say.BYMELANIEGRAYCEWESTNurseBracesfor
New Surge in
New York City
Erin Smith, left, assesses a patient at Lenox Hill Hospital. She is also part of a team trained to care for colleagues during stressful times.FROM TOP: NORTHWELL HEALTH; MELISSA BUNNI ELIAN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNALThe ceremony will be tele-
vised, however, on NBC.
“That’s the best way to see it,
to feel that moment,” said Mr.
de Blasio.
The Rockefeller Center tree,
a Norwegian spruce measuring
75 feet tall that was sourced
from Oneonta, N.Y., has al-
ready gotten its fair share of
attention this year. When the
tree arrived in the city, a
worker spotted an owl in it
and the bird became some-
thing of an instant celebrity.
The owl was later captured
and released into the wild.
Those seeking an alterna-
tive to the Rockefeller Center
tree have their options. For
example, the American Mu-
seum of Natural History has
its Origami Holiday Tree,
which this year features 1,
paper cranes, a symbol of
hope and good wishes.
Tyler Nevins, a 41-year-old
resident of Redding, Conn., is
among those who usually visits
the Rockefeller Center tree with
his family. He said the safety
rules are a good idea, but they
will skip the tree visit this year.
“We’re just avoiding public
spaces in general,” he said.BYCHARLESPASSYRockefeller Center
Limits Tree Viewing
Downpours Drench the Metropolitan Area
WILD WEATHER: The storm didn’t deter a shopper in Manhattan Monday, when heavy rains and gusty winds battered the tri-state
region. Tornado watches were issued for parts of New Jersey. Windy conditions and cooler temperatures are expected Tuesday.MARK LENNIHAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
‘In the last nine
months I’ve prayed
more than I have in
thelast20years.’Gov. Cuomo orders
N.Y. to boost bed
count, identify ways
to increase staffing.NY