Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s appeal to the federal government to produce 30,000 ventilators for New York has been heard.
An infectious disease specialist who’s part of the White House coronavirus task force has said that the “bottom line” is that Cuomo needs ventilators to treat the city that has been hit the hardest by COVID-19.
“One way or another, he needs the ventilators that he needs and hopefully we will get him the ventilators that he needs. They may be closer to him that is realized but if they’re not, we’ll get them there. And if they are we’ll try to get him access to the ones that are there,” Anthony Fauci told CNN. “Bottom line, he’s got to have the ventilators. Period.”
“There are a lot of different calculations. My experience, I tend to believe Gov. Cuomo,” Fauci said.
Reports say that there are ventilators ready for use, but they need to be made reachable: “we just need to connect the dots to get them accessible” and “give them to him.”
Fauci also commented on when social distancing guidelines would come to an end.
Cuomo called out Trump last week after the president said, “We sent thousands of ventilators to New York, and they didn't know about it at the time they were complaining. They were going there in large numbers.”
The governor fired back, “That is incorrect and grossly uninformed.” Then, during a press briefing on Friday, he repeated the number of ventilators that his state will need. “All the predictions say you could have an apex needing 140,000 beds and about 40,000 ventilators.”
“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 emotions, that’s my thoughts. The numbers say you may need 30,000,” he added.
On Saturday, news surfaced that Trump was contemplating ordering a “short-term quarantine” for the New York tri-state area. However, later that night, he took to Twitter to say it wouldn't be necessary.
