Months ago, New York State required all hospitals to produce "surge plans" in case the load of Covid-19 patients became too large to manage.
Those plans didn't need to be activated here last spring, but the current rise in hospital caseloads is forcing hospital executives to think about them again.
With virus hospitalizations in the region 10 times higher than two months ago, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo sounded the alarm Monday by ordering all hospitals to increase their bed capacity by 25%.
Eight months ago, all hospitals were ordered to file contingency plans for a 50% increase in capacity, with the possibility of even larger increases. So, there are plans in place that Cuomo's order doesn't exceed â so far.