New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday said the state could very well need up to 30,000 ventilators amid the coronavirus outbreak, a day after President Trump questioned such a demand level.
“I hope we don’t need 30,000 ventilators,” Mr. Cuomo said. “I hope some natural weather change happens overnight and kills the virus globally - that’s what I hope. But that’s my hope. That’s my emotion. That’s my thought. The numbers say you may need 30,000.”
The governor has also cited a maximum projected need of 40,000 ventilators.
Mr. Trump on Thursday said he thinks some of those numbers could be exaggerated.
“I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be,” the president said on Fox News. “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You know, you go into major hospitals sometimes and they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ’Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’
On Friday, the president said the state should start deploying the ventilators they do have immediately.
“Thousand of Federal Government (delivered) Ventilators found in New York storage. N.Y. must distribute NOW!” the president said on Twitter.
Mr. Cuomo had said on Thursday that the state has about 12,000 ventilators on hand. On Friday, he said the stockpile is being held for when the “apex” of the crisis hits, which he said could come in 21 days.
“We need them for the apex - the apex isn’t here, so we’re gathering them in the stockpile so when we need them they will be there. We don’t need them today because we’re not at capacity today,” Mr. Cuomo said.
New York is easily the hardest-hit state U.S. state amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Mr. Cuomo said on Friday that there were 44,635 positive coronavirus cases in New York, including 7,377 new cases.
He also said there were 519 coronavirus-related deaths - up from 385 he had reported on Thursday.
There are more than 92,900 positive coronavirus cases in the U.S. and there have been more than 1,300 coronavirus-related deaths, according to a tracker from Johns Hopkins University.
Mr. Cuomo said the rate of increase in hospitalizations has slowed but that the numbers are still going up.
“It’s still doubling and that’s still bad news,” he said. “But there is good news in that the rate of the increase is slowing.”
Mr. Cuomo was speaking from the Javits Center in New York City, one of four makeshift hospital sites the state is building with the federal government.
The governor said he planned to ask Mr. Trump to approve four additional sites and that the state was scouting locations in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island.
He tried to spur on National Guard members on hand in militaristic terms.
“So I say my friends, we go out there today and we kick coronavirus ass - that’s what I say,” he said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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