De Blasio begs U.S. officials for more aid

New York City mayor urges doctors draft

NEW YORK • New York’s mayor pleaded with the Trump administration for a national draft of doctors to be sent to America’s hardest-hit city, warning it was approaching “D-Day”.

Bill de Blasio said that Sunday was a crucial day in the fight against the virus and that if critical supplies did not arrive soon, hundreds, if not thousands, more would die.

“Unless there is a national effort to enlist doctors, nurses, hospital workers of all kinds and get them where they are needed most in the country in time, I don’t see, honestly, how we’re going to have the professionals we need to get through this crisis,” de Blasio said Friday.

New York City is the centre of the outbreak in the United States. Nearly 50,000 people have tested positive, and 1,500 have died — more than 1,000 of them in the past week alone. The number of infected is thought to be much larger than the official figure as tests are only being carried out on the most serious cases.

“This country is not in a position to deal with this crisis going forward. Whatever we’ve seen up until now, I’m guaranteeing you next week is going to be a lot tougher,” de Blasio said.

He appealed to the federal government to “step up and provide the reinforcements we need”.

He said the “battle will be long and we cannot fight it alone”.

New Yorkers have been warned that the state might not see the outbreak peak for another two to three weeks. A doctor in charge of an emergency department in a New York hospital told the Daily Telegraph this week that, while ventilators were starting to reach them, there was not enough medically-trained staff to use them.

“We have staff getting sick and no one wants to come back to help, and I get it, I really do. It’s hell on earth,” he said.

President Donald Trump has also come under pressure to issue a nationwide stay-at-home order from the U.S.’s top medical expert on the pandemic. Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of Trump’s coronavirus task force, told CNN that he did not understand why a nationwide lockdown had not been issued by the president.

Trump has repeatedly dismissed such an order as unnecessary.

States including North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Arkansas currently have no stay-athome orders, while only parts of Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma are subject to them.

Cases in the U.S. have soared to some 250,000 — nearly a quarter of the global total — and 6,000 people have died.

The country has also seen a number of epicentres emerging, including New Orleans in Louisiana, which could become a strain on national resources.