“I’m terrified, I honestly don’t know if I’m going to survive. I’m terrified of what I’ve already possibly brought home.” Phil Suarez, paramedic in New York City for 26 years, assisted in rescue efforts during the 11 September 2001 terror attacks, later served in the Iraq War.

In a matter of days, New York City’s 911 system has been overwhelmed by emergency calls related to the virus. Usually, the system sees about 4,000 calls a day. On Thursday, more than 7,000 calls were recorded — a volume not seen since the 11 September attacks. The record for number of calls in a day was broken three times just last week.

Because of the sheer amount of requests, medical workers have to make life-or-death decisions – who is sick enough to get access to emergency rooms and who is well enough to be left behind.

New York City has become the epicenter of the corona-virus pandemic in the United States, with 29,776 cases (+16.44%) and 517 deaths (+41.26%) as of Sunday.

The department said it has started rationing protective gear in an attempt to stave off potential shortages. Earlier this month, the department told workers that they must turn in their used N95 masks in order to receive a new one.

Three weeks ago, the paramedics said, most corona-virus calls were for respiratory distress or fever. Now the same types of patients, after having been sent home from the hospital, are experiencing organ failure and cardiac arrest.

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