New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday said that after this Sunday, his city is going to have a real problem getting care to everyone who needs it amid the expanding coronavirus outbreak.
“We set a deadline that we know if we don’t get reinforced, particularly with ventilators and more medical personnel, after this coming Sunday, we’re really going to have a problem ensuring that everyone who needs care gets it,” Mr. de Blasio said on CNN’s “New Day.”
“I’m trying to put down a marker that if we don’t get more consistent federal help in a growing crisis, there’s a danger we start to lose lives that could have been saved,” he said. “Sunday is D-Day — we need help by Sunday.”
He said he’s asked the federal government to get the city 400 ventilators “right away” to get them through to Sunday and that they will need more after that.
“We need a lot of help by Sunday,” he said.
President Trump over the weekend had questioned the skyrocketing use of medical masks in some locations, including in New York, saying that “something’s going on.”
Mr. de Blasio said the president’s comments were insulting to health care workers and incredibly insensitive.
“What the president should be doing is praising our health care workers — not suggesting somehow they’re doing something wrong,” he said.
New York City has been the epicenter of the crisis in the U.S. with more than 33,700 positive coronavirus cases and at least 776 deaths, according to state figures and a tracker from Johns Hopkins University.
There are more than 143,000 positive cases and more than 2,500 coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S., according to the JHU tracker.
The USNS Comfort is scheduled to arrive in New York on Monday to help free up hospital bed space for COVID-19 patients.
“What a morale boost — what a shot in the arm to be able to see our military here to help us,” the mayor said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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