NEW YORK &mdash Medical workers on the front lines of New York City' s growing coronavirus emergency are sounding the alarm that without more equipment and stricter protocols they&rsquo ll soon be the ones in need of treatment.

The city is now the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in the U.S., with 12,339 residents infected and about 17 percent of those cases hospitalized as of Monday morning. The number of hospitalizations is expected to peak within the next 40 days, though hospitals are already down to their last weeks of personal protective equipment to keep medical professionals from contracting the infectious disease.

Medical professionals who spoke with POLITICO asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, and in some cases, to avoid getting caught breaking non-disclosure agreements.

&ldquo Doctors are going in [to Covid-19 units] without washing their hands properly, going in without gloves,&rdquo a staffer at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue said. &ldquo Doctors are becoming patients at every hospital system in New York City.&rdquo

The shortage of personal protective equipment, or PPE, has forced workers to reuse single-use masks and wipe down face shields with bleach wipes &mdash supplies that are also running low at even the best-appointed hospitals, according to staffers across the city&rsquo s health systems.

&ldquo It is really, really bad. I showed up to work last night, and for each nurse you get a brown bag with one face shield and one N95 mask,&rdquo said a nurse at Mount Sinai. &ldquo There&rsquo s bins to recycle the masks. We will soon be running out.&rdquo

With the lack of equipment, frontline medical staff risk being exposed to the virus, which could put them in the hospital or keep them home for weeks as they recover &mdash further crushing hospitals with staff shortages.

Three nurses who spoke with POLITICO said they&rsquo re working anywhere from 12- to 15-hour shifts for three to five consecutive days. While overtime is not mandatory, they expect either the state or their hospitals will begin implementing that policy soon.

&ldquo With an influx of patients coming in, it&rsquo s only going to get worse,&rdquo said the Mount Sinai nurse. &ldquo We still don&rsquo t have enough manpower.&rdquo

At Mount Sinai South Nassau, one staffer said the Long Island hospital has not done deep cleaning in communal areas, like break rooms, where medical professionals sit &ldquo shoulder to shoulder.&rdquo

&ldquo I&rsquo m confused about why the hospital is working this way,&rdquo she said. &ldquo They&rsquo re going to inundate themselves with their own staffers.&rdquo

NewYork-Presbyterian, Mount Sinai and NYC Health + Hospitals &mdash the city' s public hospital system &mdash are not broadly testing their staff for Covid-19 despite concerns from employees that they will infect their families when they return home from a shift or work alongside a colleague who has the virus, they said.

&ldquo Hospital staff are being exposed to potential Covid-19-infected patients and being officially told to continue to work while they have no symptoms themselves, even when we know it is very possible to spread the virus without having symptoms,&rdquo said a health care professional employed at NYC Health + Hospitals. &ldquo They have made this policy because we are short-staffed at baseline.&rdquo

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio are attempting to address the statewide staffing and supply shortage by calling on retired health care workers to join a medical reserve and pressing the federal government for equipment.

&ldquo I am contacting all the retired nurses, all retired doctors. I am asking medical schools to make their staff available nursing schools to make their staff available,&rdquo Cuomo said at a press conference at the Javits Center this afternoon, where the Federal Emergency Management Agency has started to build a 1,000-bed temporary hospital. &ldquo We&rsquo re also contacting all registered health care professionals across the state &mdash over 600,000 &mdash to ask them to be ready to come in as a reserve staff.&rdquo

Cheryl Wischhover, a beauty and wellness reporter who worked as a nurse practitioner at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center until 2009, received an email from the governor&rsquo s team asking her to temporarily supplement the state&rsquo s health care workforce.

&ldquo Technology, medicines and protocols have changed a lot in the last decade,&rdquo she said in an interview. &ldquo All that makes me not the best person to be on the front lines.&rdquo

The former pediatric nurse practitioner said she is still considering the request, though she would be more comfortable swabbing noses in a hospital tent than working in facilities with adult patients hooked up to ventilators.

&ldquo I&rsquo m in my late 40s. Of course I&rsquo m terrified,&rdquo she said. &ldquo Can I take care of other patients and free up nurses?&rdquo

Hospital personnel are also being thrown into situations one staffer described as &ldquo uncomfortable,&rdquo such as treating Covid-19 patients with little to no training in treating its effects.

&ldquo So far they&rsquo re trying to have people shadow in these critical care issues,&rdquo said a staffer at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. &ldquo It&rsquo s going to be something that they have to learn on the go.&rdquo

Five medical professionals said the mental health toll is starting to show among health workers.

&ldquo This will be the most catastrophic event that has happened in our lifetime so far,&rdquo said the staffer at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell. &ldquo There&rsquo s a sense of desperation and panic and abyss in my colleagues&rsquo eyes that I&rsquo ve never witnessed.&rdquo

The Mount Sinai South Nassau staffer added: &ldquo It&rsquo s been a whirlwind of emotion in a pressure cooker situation and most of us just want to cry all the time but we&rsquo re afraid if we start we might not stop.&rdquo

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PPE and medical supplies are very much needed in Europe and USA now..
Can only pity the unprotected healthcare personnels.
Trump should be spending more money to equip these heros instead of just pumping money into the money mkt.