Mayor Bill de Blasio on the State of the Pandemic in NYC

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: These are really terrible numbers that we’re hearing. And it’s all over the country, including some dangerous spikes in your own city and state. What can you tell us about the state of affairs right now, particularly in hospitalizations?

BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY) MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: Christiane, we have seen certainly an increase in hospitalizations, although less than we expected to date, and with less severity, in the sense of the impact on our intensive care units. So, we are very concerned. The quote you just ran certainly typifies what I’m feeling, the concern about hospital capacity, hospital staff, what happens if the numbers start to go up abruptly. But, to date, what we have seen is still a manageable situation in our hospitals. We still have capacity and much better approaches to COVID patients that have led to better outcomes by far than what we experienced in the early spring.

AMANPOUR: So, let me ask. You say, so far, it’s manageable unless something terrible happens. We’re seeing terrible things happen elsewhere. The mayor of Los Angeles is basically telling everybody just to stay put, don’t leave the house, unless for absolute emergencies. So, things are really bad in parts of the country. What kind of procedures are you putting in place to avoid any — the worst — the worst-case scenario?

DE BLASIO: We obviously were the epicenter of this crisis. So we learned to do a lot of things differently. And our hospitals have approached the situation very differently in terms of space and staffing and strategies. And, again, we’re seeing better outcomes. But we’re preparing right now for the danger of a real increase. We’re also — we have put out a Health Department order telling New Yorkers who are over 65 years old or who have preexisting conditions, like diabetes or heart disease, to stay home and only go out for the most essential needs like a doctor appointment. So, we are starting up that ladder. We are working with the state of New York on if additional restrictions will be needed. But I do want to note at the same time that we have seen, thankfully, a high level of mask usage by New Yorkers, a lot of adherence to rules, bluntly, much more so than in some other parts of the United States. And that is having some effect. Certainly, our hospital teams report that being one of the reasons they don’t see the same intensity, is because New Yorkers have been very conscientious about mask-wearing, and that has had an impact on the trajectory of the disease here.