New York (EFE) visits to public hospitals for asthma cases.
The effect of the pollution was especially notable on Wednesday, when a thick orange haze with a notable smell of smoke was imposed on the Big Apple, while yesterday Thursday the pollution alert continued despite the fact that the skies looked much clearer, just like today.
Air quality is expected to improve this weekend, but the city will be on alert until midnight, so the Health Department recommended people with respiratory and heart problems not to let down their guard and reduce their time in the outside, or wearing a mask.
On Wednesday, according to data released today by the Department, there were 309 visits to hospital emergencies for asthma cases, compared to 162 the previous day.
Although the visits for respiratory problems were many more (1,123), they were in line with the usual, with only twelve more cases than the day before.
New York is resuming activities
The public education system, the largest in the country, which canceled outdoor activities and established a remote day for workers and students for today, announced that starting tomorrow “normal operations will resume in person” in all its facilities.
Already yesterday, some sports and entertainment activities were postponed from Wednesday to Thursday, such as a baseball game between the Yankees and the White Sox or the famous Broadway play “Hamilton”.
Some international indices for measuring air pollution have placed New York in recent days among the three or two most polluted cities on the planet, along with cities such as Dhaka (Bangladesh), Lahore (Pakistan), Tel Aviv (Israel) or New Delhi (India).
In comparison, today the IQAir index – which yesterday had New York for several hours as the second most polluted city in the world – places the Big Apple in 59th place, with cleaner air than other cities in the country such as Detroit or Los Angeles. .