Hospitals ‘10 days away’ from shortages of essential supplies, Mayor De Blasio warns, as Covid-19 cases in NYC top 8,000
RT.com
22 Mar, 2020
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio believes April will be ‘a lot worse’ than March when it comes to coronavirus, and wants the US military ‘mobilized’ in response to the disease.
Speaking on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ De Blasio took a jab at the federal government, claiming he sees very little positive about its response to the spread of coronavirus.
“It’s only getting worse,” he said, adding that, “New Yorkers and Americans deserve the blunt truth.”
That blunt truth, according to the mayor, includes the fact that hospitals will be running short on fundamental supplies like ventilators in the coming month and the administration has not been quick enough to respond to this issue.
De Blasio says President Donald Trump has not done enough to help the city he was born in during this pandemic.
“If the president doesn’t act, people will die who could have lived otherwise,” the mayor warned.
He says New York City hospitals will be running short on fundamental supplies very soon.
“We’re about ten days away now from seeing widespread shortages of ventilators, surgical masks, the things necessary to keep a hospital system running,” De Blasio told CNN.
The mayor believes the “medical capacity” of the military is essential to responding to the virus in his city, but the federal government has denied requests to fully deploy them.
New York currently has over 10,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19. New York City alone has over 8,000 of those cases, which accounts for nearly a third of the total cases in the US.
Despite De Blasio repeatedly bashing him over the federal response to the coronavirus, President Donald Trump has praised New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and said they are “in sync” when it comes to the current crisis.
“I’m dealing with the governor,” Trump told the press on Friday. “I agree with him and he agrees with me.”
The president has responded to the coronavirus spread by putting travel bans in place with countries more largely affected by the disease, as well as closing the US’ borders with Mexico.
An economic stimulus plan is also being finalized, according to US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, that will provide funds to US citizens and small businesses with income that has been negatively impacted by the slowing of the economy.
