New York tells first responders not to bother reviving people without a pulse amid the coronavirus

New York state has issued a guideline to emergency first responders advising them not to resuscitate patients who don't have a pulse when they arrive on the scene.

The updated advisory was issued in a state Health Department memo issued last week, according to the New York Post. The memo called the change "necessary during the COVID-19 response to protect the health and safety of EMS providers by limiting their exposure, conserve resources, and ensure optimal use of equipment to save the greatest number of lives."

Emergency medical service workers, who normally spend up to 20 minutes attempting to revive people found in cardiac arrest, were outraged over the change, the Post reported.

"They're not giving people a second chance to live anymore,'' Oren Barzilay, head of the city union, which includes uniformed EMTs and paramedics, said. "Our job is to bring patients back to life. This guideline takes that away from us."

"Now you don't get 20 minutes of CPR if you have no rhythm," a veteran FDNY EMS worker added. "They simply let you die."

The order follows guidelines issued earlier in the month by the Regional Emergency Services Council of New York that advised emergency services workers not to transport cardiac arrest patients who cannot be revived on the scene to the hospital.

The drastic measures come as New York City hospitals have been inundated with patients during the coronavirus pandemic, often leaving few or no intensive care unit beds.

The city has evidently made the determination that potentially disseminating the disease through resuscitation is too great a risk. ABC News reported that in guidelines issued last month, the American College of Cardiology assessed that while the chances are survival are slim for those who go into cardiac arrest outside of a hospital, the "wide dissemination" of coronavirus particles is probable.

The veteran EMS worker acknowledged to the Post that only 3 or 4 people out of 100 are successfully revived through CPR and other aggressive intervention methods both on the scene and at the hospital.

"[But] for those 3 or 4 people, it's a big deal," the worker added.