COVID-19 in the US: NY at the Epicenter of Pandemic - Essay Sample

Introduction

Coronavirus pandemic is affecting every individual throughout the globe, and every person is tensed on how to survive from this calamity. In the United States, New York was the first state to confirm the case of covid-19 at the beginning of March 2020, and as by the date 26th march from the governor's hearings, the number has risen to 37,000. However, out of 37,000 cases, 385 individuals have died, and about 56% of the civil cases which are known come from New York City. Moreover, due to the increase in the situation daily, the governor of New York City Andrew Cuomo decided to declare the state of emergency in the city on 7th March after receiving a report of 89 cases of COVID-19. Also, the Governor with his committee, decided to come up with a policy in concern to the public health strategy of having citizens abide with new guidelines such as staying at home and avoiding densely populated places. Also, on March 11, Governor Cuomo decided to announce the official close down of public places and schools and gave directives of schools moving their regular learning to online throughout the spring semester. This paper will examine the legislative hearing of governor Cuomo on the public issue of COVID-19 in New York City and updates on the way forward.

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Descriptive Information

The title and purpose of the hearing are the Coronavirus pandemic updates on economic and public health impacts and how to deal with the ongoing situation. The committee is comprised of four members, namely, chairperson of the committee governor Andrew Cuomo, James (the president of Sony school), Melissa, and Robert (the mastermind of the city budget). Also, the hearing has some attendee press media, and they are the witness of what the government is doing about the Coronavirus cases in the city and how to stop its spread carefully.

Background Information

Coronavirus pandemic is affecting every sector of the economy and public at large, and the individuals are forced to live a beautiful life since they have never experienced such a situation for centuries. However, the federal government has urged all the states to give directives on how to deal with rising cases of the covid-19 disease and try as hard as possible to avoid its spread to the whole country. Moreover, the states cannot give out directives and measures without consulting congress or rather the feeling government, and that is why in his statement, governor Cuomo says that the government has failed to address the issue from the economic perspective, which gives them a hard time. The congress released around $2 trillion the estimated amount to only deal with the Coronavirus cases and not any other issue that seems to be affecting the citizens indirectly since they are not accessing many services.

Problems With the Policy

The policies stated by governor Cuomo tend to have some conflicting issues that are economically related to the public health strategy. One of the plans is to increase the hospital capacity, and this means that the hospitals have to go extra hard to spend some money with the help of the government to increase their capacity by about 50%.however this policy has some shortcomings which means the hospitals will have to hire some beds from nearby schools to get enough beds to hold the increasing number of the cases. However, as the covid-19 cases are increasing, the health care workers from all over the country are volunteering to help patients to curb the problem. Also, testing of the virus seems to have some issues since the public health has to coordinate with the citizens to set a day for testing, and this means that there has to be enough training of the volunteers to meet the objectives of trial as many people as possible.

Another policy concerns the New York economic perspective. Governor Cuomo released his statement about the estimated budget to deal with the pandemic in the state and said that the estimated budget is about $5 to $10B, which means that there is no other funding to deal with domestic or basic needs issue. Cuomo goes ahead and blames the national government for failing to address the government's demand and has only received $5b for covid-19 expenses, and this is little for him to budget and make some projections about it since New York is the most affected state in the country. From on economic perspective, the $2 trillion stimulus bill released by Congress is not enough to succumb to all the covid-19 cases nationwide, and they should have some projections before the situation gets out of hand for the whole country.

Reasons for the Policy to Be on Legislative Agenda

The primary reason as to why the plans are on the legislative program it is because it is the government's responsibility to deal with any kind of disaster that threatens the national or state security of the citizens. The covid-19 situation does not only affect the economy but also influences the health of individuals, and this means the public health department has the responsibility of making sure it is reduced in the cases, and citizens get back to their healthy living. Despite having the supporters and the detractors of the policy, the government has to make sure that people's safety comes first no matter the circumstances, and that is why no public opinion is required when it comes to issuing of directives by the state committee led by Governor Cuomo.Summary of the Testimonies

There were about four people on the committee, which was led by the chairperson who is the governor, and they all contribute a lot to the decision making. The governor stated the main reasons for the conference was to address the issue of public health and economy and how the state has organized itself to deal with the situation of the Coronavirus pandemic. Also, governor Cuomo went ahead and highlighted the issue of PPE by saying they are giving suppliers directives on manufacturing the pieces of equipment since they are on high demand nationwide, and every state is tasked with the responsibility of making sure they acquire some.

Also, Robert, one of the committee members who were among the mastermind of the state budget, said that the allocated amount of money by the congress would be projected in quotas, and every citizen will be able to view how to spend on various cases every quarter. Also, Robert went ahead and pointed out that the budget is planned to start working on 1st April 2020, and they have come up with ways on how to handle revenue losses throughout the year. Therefore, the budget will have initial projections being adjusted down throughput the year to be able to reflect the actual revenues.

Stakeholders Affected

Most of the affected persons by the policy are the citizens. The government should find more secure ways to deal with the situation since most of the citizens are not working, and this means they have to consume all of their savings because they are in panic with not knowing for how long the pandemic will last. Also, the hospitals are much affected because they have to overwork themselves to deal with the rising cases and make sure that they have done testing in the whole state and know the exact number of the covid-19 cases. The businesses have closed down due to the Coronavirus; this means that they are not getting revenues, but they are encountering losses because no one is willing to transact, and the security department is overwhelmed since they have to update their working schedules tirelessly to serve the public.

Observations and Analysis

From a personal point of view, the governor is right and his doing his duties well according to the state mandates. Keeping people safe is the priority in this time, and the fact of expanding hospital capacity is necessary because the estimated scenarios exceed the current hospital capacity in the city. Also, the initiative of moving from downstate hospitals to upstate hospitals was well presented by the governor because it is geared towards reducing the number of cases in the state. Another recommended strategy is the increase in ventilators since most of the patients need ventilation to help them have quick recovery because the virus keeps on mutating, and the only way to prevent this is to make the environment unconducive for them to survive on the host.

The adoption of splitting technology works best since one ventilator can be used to serve two covid-19 patients in case of the ones moved to the schools. Converting of anesthesia to ventilators is also among the measures to be implemented by the government to make sure that there are enough ventilators in the system to fight this pandemic. The reasons as to why the government insists on ventilators are because the increase in death rate is as a result of having few ventilators. After all, most of the patients have to use them for about 20-30 days and which means any longer stays can lead to death because the immune of that individual is not stable. Finally, the conference was less of politics since the committee focused on dealing with the covid-19 pandemic issue and avoided a lot of political blames.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the legislative hearing or conferences are mostly held when there is national or state emergency, such as the covid-19 case. It is the responsibility of every citizen to get updates on how to behave and carry out actions as directed by the government for their safety. Therefore, the legislature is the one tasked with the mandates of serving the citizens and protecting their wellbeing; that is why they develop and implement policies that appear to be harsh or strict, but by the end of the day, they are life-saving.

References

(2020, March 26). Retrieved March 27, 2020, from https://www.c-span.org/video/?470732-1/york-governor-cuomo-coronavirus-news-conference