The rate of COVID-19 cases in Rockland, a "hot spot" outside New York City, was leaving medics swamped.

EMTs responded to call after call each shift. In the era of coronavirus, medics often find patients who are sicker, and more panicked, when they get to the scene.

"Comparable to last year's call volume, our numbers have doubled in the last four weeks," Nanuet Assistant Chief Jonathan Delgado said. Places hit harder by COVID-19, like Haverstraw, have seen 911 calls triple.

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Rockland County has the fourth-highest rate of COVID-19 cases in the state outside New York City. Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently referred to the county as a "hot spot." On March 30, Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said Rockland was one of the fastest growing areas for COVID-19 cases.

Rockland's volunteer corps needed help.

One Nanuet Community Ambulance Corps volunteer, Matthew Zoda, had an idea.

A 21-year-old senior at the University at Albany, Zoda is a member of the student-run Five Quad Volunteer Ambulance Corps that serves the school community and neighborhoods beyond.

The university is shuttered and classes are now all online. So Zoda, who is majoring in emergency preparedness, suggested that Nanuet tap the skilled EMTs to staff and stage a Five Quad rig in Rockland.

Delgado reached out. In a little more than a week, Five Quad was rolling.

Meanwhile, Mara Traynor, a lieutenant and volunteer EMT at the New City Ambulance Corps, knew her team needed relief. She reached out to SUNY Binghamton's student-run ambulance corps, Harpur’s Ferry, and SUNY Geneseo's First Response campus squad, to help relieve the pressure on Rockland responders.

Ten student EMTs from the two SUNY campuses arrived in Rockland on Monday. They will stage at New City, Stony Point and Haverstraw ambulance corps. The latter departments are frequently overstretched, Traynor said.

The student EMTs "have already had a huge impact," Traynor said.

The students are fully certified New York State EMTs, and some are fully certified ambulance drivers. "They showed up and they were ready," Traynor said. Albany's Five Quad even brought one of its rigs to stage at Nanuet Ambulance.

Delgado said the students have already helped out "tremendously."

"Our crews have been going nonstop," said Delgado, who also serves as his corps' public information officer. "Just having one more ambulance with two fresh bodies here, made a huge difference. We're all tired."

The majority of the SUNY students aren't from Rockland.

The Geneseo and Binghamton students are staying in apartments that Stony Point Ambulance Corps owns and usually rents to volunteers, Traynor said. Rockland County has supplied linens and other essentials. Local businesses are helping out with food.

Nanuet is providing space in their bunk rooms for the crews, which rotate every four days.

While the SUNY campuses are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, classes continue online.

"All they asked for was free WiFi," Traynor said of her student recruits, so they could complete their coursework remotely.

Zoda pointed out that students have final exams coming up next month, so they are all focusing on academics, too.

Delgado said he's impressed by the SUNY students' willingness to come help. And he knows a thing or two about college — his full-time job is assistant director of residence life/student conduct at Dominican College in Blauvelt.

"These are students who go above and beyond," Delgado said of the SUNY volunteer EMTs. "It takes a lot of umph and guts to go down to Rockland County, pull 12-hour shifts."

This also presented an opportunity for college EMTs. "It's a different experience, a different population," Delgado said, with "calls that are higher acuity than you'd see on a college campus."

Traynor agreed. "They are seeing stuff you're not going to see at a student-run corps," she said. "A lot of them are taking the MCATs and this experience will make them stand out applying to medical school."

She said any extra edge they get in the med school application process would be well-deserved. "They jumped into the middle of it," Traynor said,

Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy. Click here for her latest stories. Follow her on Twitter at @nancyrockland. Support local journalism; go to lohud.com/specialoffer to find out how.