New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday said his state has enough ventilators in its stockpile to last about six days, though he said they’re taking extraordinary measures that put them in “fairly good shape” to meet demand amid the coronavirus outbreak.
He said they’re in the process of moving ventilators from upstate locations to areas in greater need downstate.
“At the current burn rate, we have about six days of ventilators in our stockpile,” Mr. Cuomo said at his daily briefing on the COVID-19 outbreak in his state.
He said there are about 2,200 ventilators in the state stockpile and roughly 350 people who need one enter the hospital system every day.
Mr. Cuomo has estimated that the state could need 30,000 to 40,000 ventilators at the apex of the crisis. He said Thursday that the apex could be 1-4 weeks away depending on the model.
He said they’re taking steps to increase supply by ending all elective surgeries, using anesthesia machine ventilators, and experimenting with “splitting” ventilators so more than one person uses them.
He also said they’re converting some BiPAP machines, which are used to treat sleep apnea, to be used as ventilators.
Ventilators are crucial in treating patients diagnosed with the coronavirus, which is a viral respiratory disease. Mr. Cuomo estimated this week that just 20% of the patients who are going on ventilators end up successfully coming off them and recovering.
“Yes, the burn rate of ventilators is troubling and six days of ventilators in the stockpile is troubling, but we have all these extraordinary measures that I believe, if push comes to shove, [will] put us in fairly good shape,” he said.
He also said the state has purchased about 7,000 hand-held, manually-operated “bladder” ventilators.
The governor said the state has received about 4,400 ventilators from the federal government but that he doesn’t think the feds are in a position to distribute ventilators to fill the needs of all states across the country.
The federal government reported on Wednesday that it had 10,469 ventilators in reserve.
“Our attitude here is, we’re on our own,” Mr. Cuomo said. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to get ventilators from the federal government, but that’s why we’re also taking all those extraordinary measures ourselves. Just assume you are on your own in life, right? And that’s the operating assumption.”
President Trump earlier Thursday said on Twitter that New York has gotten far more supplies than any other state and got off to a late start in confronting the virus, but that Mr. Cuomo is “working hard.”
Mr. Cuomo said that among the nearly 20 million residents in his state, there are 92,381 positive coronavirus cases, a 10% increase compared to what he had reported on Wednesday, and 2,373 coronavirus-related deaths, a 22% increase from a day earlier.
Both figures are easily the most out of any state in the United States, where there are now more than 226,000 cases and more than 5,300 deaths. An estimated 8,800 in the country have recovered, according to a tracker from Johns Hopkins University.
There have been close to 240,000 people tested in New York state.
There were 13,383 people hospitalized in New York, about a 9% increase from a day earlier.
But Mr. Cuomo also said the number of people being released from hospitals is way up, a potentially positive sign.
He reported that 7,434 patients have been discharged, about a 21% increase from a day earlier.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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