MANHATTAN, New York — John Giarratano, a 42-year-old Queens man who didn’t get his coronavirus diagnosis until nearly two weeks after developing a fever, was moved from a Long Island hospital to Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Hospital early Saturday morning.
He was started on a strong antiviral treatment, Remdesivir, on Thursday afternoon and it seemed to have some benefit. Remdesivir has been used to treat Ebola, a highly-contagious virus.
“They were able to turn down his oxygen from 100% to 70%, which is a promising sign,” Giarratano’s partner, Brian Zupanick, told PIX11.
Giarratano was placed in an induced coma last Sunday when he was intubated and placed on a ventilator to help him breathe, according to Zupanick. He remains on the ventilator.
Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan is the largest of eight hospitals in its system, which was treating a total of 375 COVID-19 patients as of 5 p.m. Saturday.
“We convert units daily to COVID units,” a source with Mt. Sinai told PIX11 News. “And we have several COVID ICUs.”
They also have beds designated for patients under investigation, meaning the person is showing signs and symptoms and received a test but the results are not back yet.
