New York City Nurse Braces for New Covid-19 Surge. ‘Nobody Wants to Do it Again.’

About six weeks ago, Erin Smith got the sinking feeling that a new surge of Covid-19 infections had hit New York City. The Covid-19 unit that she oversees at Manhattan’s Lenox Hill Hospital was full, with very sick patients, including some who died. It stayed that way for two to three weeks before almost emptying. Ms. Smith, a 39-year-old nurse manager, said she estimates it will be full again the first week of December. The mood inside the hospital is anxious, but hopeful, she said, but a potential repeat of the experience in March and April, when Covid-19 first ripped through the city, is petrifying. “It was a hella six months,” said Ms. Smith. “Nobody wants to do it again.”