South Carolina Nurse Prepares for First Coronavirus Shift in New York

A South Carolina nurse who traveled to New York to join the state’s coronavirus response said she’s documenting her experience in hope that it will help people across the US to take the pandemic “seriously.”

Connie Renee held a Facebook livestream on April 15 to discuss what it has been like after she left South Carolina for the nation’s coronavirus epicenter. Renee posted the footage on her “Reporting For Duty: Covid 19 Relief” Facebook page, where she said she plans to chronicle her experience in New York.

“It’s literally like a third-world country here,” Renee said in the video.

Renee said she was surprised to see the majority of New Yorkers donning masks and gloves. She urged people across the nation to take preventative measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

“The sad part is, if we don’t take this seriously, all of our hometowns are going to end up just like New York. That’s just how it goes,” she said in the livestream.

Renee told Storyful she will be working at multiple hospitals within the Medisys Health Network. She said in the video that she wanted to come to New York to witness the historic pandemic and comfort patients.

“If I can help one person, if I can hold one person’s hand, if I can be there for one person, it’s all worth it,” she said in the video. Credit: Connie Renee via Storyful