As COVID-19 hospitalizations creep to numbers not seen in months, local hospitals are preparing for the worst.

It's been months since health care workers within the Westchester Medical Health Network and Vassar Brothers battled peak coronavirus levels. Now as hospitalizations tick upward, two local doctors believe that first wave experience will pay off this time in terms of PPE, effective treatments and handling patients.

"We took the highest numbers that we ever used, our peak. And then said based upon that, multiply it by 90-day utilization and that's what we should have in supply across the network," says Anthony Costello, senior vice president and COO of WMC Health Network.

Dr. William Begg, VP of medical affairs at Vassar Brothers says, "Now we understand we have to wait until the very last second before we put someone on a respirator."

Begg says this increase is unlike the first.

"The problem this time around is our society has COVID fatigue. I unfortunately believe - look the data and our society - that this wave is going to last a lot longer," he says. "The biggest way you can support us is by not getting COVID and I'm not trying to be funny...right now we can handle the number of cases. But if our members of society don't really pay attention to the social distancing and not having the large gatherings over the holidays .. you're going to potentially break our health care system."