Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake (Photo provided by Adirondack Health)

SARANAC LAKE — As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases continues to rise statewide, hospital administrators are quickly piecing together plans to expand the number of available patient beds as they brace for a tide of patients seeking care.

The rush to find more space came after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Sunday he would be ordering all New York hospitals to come up with a plan to expand existing capacity by at least 50%. Hospitals have until mid-day today to submit plans to the state for how they will adhere to the new requirement.

Representatives of both Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake and Elizabethtown Community Hospital said on Monday the facilities will find a way to accommodate more patients.

At ECH, Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Clauss said the hospital plans to expand its capacity from 25 beds to 38. AMC currently has eight ICU beds and 43 staffed beds. Spokesman Matt Scollin said the hospital was still drafting a plan for how it will increase that capacity, and by how much.

Specific details — such as where the new beds would be located — were not available by Monday evening, but more information is expected by Wednesday.

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Needed: More beds, supplies, ventilators

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Based on the trajectory of the spread, Cuomo has said 40 to 80% of all New Yorkers could become sick because of the coronavirus.

Public health and elected officials at the local, state and federal level have expressed concern that hospitals around the country don’t have enough capacity to accommodate the expected influx of COVID-19 patients seeking care, that hospitals won’t have enough ventilators for COVID-19 patients with respiratory complications, and that there aren’t enough testing supplies and protective equipment for hospital staff to meet demand.

At the direction of Cuomo, in addition to asking hospitals to find a way to expand capacity, the state has continued to contract with private labs and open drive-thru testing sites to ramp up testing capabilities. Cuomo has also put out a call to private manufacturers, seeking companies willing to produce more masks, gowns, gloves and other protective equipment for the state’s hospital staff.

“NY will pay a premium and offer funding,” he wrote on social media.

At the federal level, the Trump administration issued a Major Disaster Declaration for New York last week, opening the door for the state to access billions of dollars in federal aid from the Disaster Relief Fund through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to the New York Times.

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Wash your hands

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In the North Country, where many hospitals have consolidated their operations, merged, struggled financially for years or struggled to fill key positions, this pandemic presents profound challenges.

As doctors and public health officials stress the importance of handwashing, social distancing and isolation in an effort to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus and minimize the number of patients seeking care at the same time, behind the scenes, they are also working to piece together worst-case-scenario contingency plans.

“I can’t stress this enough: We know a few things about this virus,” said ECH Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Clauss. “It appears to be highly contagious, and in a small percentage of people appears to be life-threatening. It is life-threatening. Furthermore, although many smart, creative people are working hard on this, we do not have any active treatments for this other than supportive care. The very best strategy to mitigate the effect on people is to mitigate the number of people who are infected in the first place.”

He said social distancing — staying at least six feet away from others and limiting time spent in public — is crucial at this time. Medical systems are “under a tremendous amount of stress.”

“We need people in the public to actively make this situation have a significant impact on their lives, before the number of infections has a significant impact on their lives,” Clauss said. “That’s how we minimize the number of people who lose their lives to this.”

Clauss stressed that handwashing should be taken seriously.

“We know this is a virus primarily spread through respiratory secretions,” he said. “The more we touch, the more we touch surfaces then touch our faces or mouths, the more we’re exposing ourselves to the potential germs in the environment. We know from other medical infections that hand washing is a surprisingly effective means of spread prevention. It would be a mistake not to apply those lessons in this case.”

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By the numbers

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Three cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Essex County to date; a woman who was tested at Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake, and a husband and wife who were tested at Elizabethtown Community Hospital. Those people remain in isolation.

Altogether, the Essex County Health Department is aware of 39 people who have received negative test results.

Twenty-seven people countywide were listed as being under mandatory quarantine Monday evening, down by two from Sunday. Two people were moved up to isolation quarantine after recieving positive test results. People placed in mandatory quarantine are typically exhibiting symptoms or have a high likelihood of having contracted the virus, but are awaiting results. Ten people were in precautionary quarantine on Monday, no change from Sunday.

There were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Franklin County as of Monday evening, according to the Franklin County Emergency Operation Center.

On Sunday, there were 51 people countywide who were in quarantine awaiting test results. It’s unclear whether that number had increased by Monday evening. The EOC said on Monday that there were “over 50” people in quarantine, and that there have been “no positive test results” reported to county Public Health.

There have been confirmed cases of COVID-19 in nearby areas, including seven in Clinton County as of Monday evening, according to the Press-Republican.

New York continues to have the most COVID-19 cases of any state in the U.S., and now accounts for 6% of all cases globally, according to the New York Times.

Statewide, the number of confirmed cases rose to 21,689 cases by Monday evening, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. That’s 17,537 more than the 4,152 cases that were confirmed this past Thursday, and coincides with the state increasing its testing capacity. As of Monday, the state had tested more than 78,000 people.

Cuomo confirmed 114 deaths due to COVID-19 statewide, as of Sunday.

More than 100 deaths were reported across 34 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico on Monday, marking the first time since the coronavirus reached the United States that fatalities in the triple-digits were reported in a single day, according to the Washington Post.

Worldwide, the World Health Organization on Monday reported 332,930 confirmed cases, up by more than 40,788 from the day before. There have been 14,510 deaths as of Monday.