Help not coming quickly enough: N.Y. governor
Mayor urges ‘full-scale’ help from military
NEW YORK • The mayor of New York City, the epicentre of the nation’s coronavirus epidemic, on Sunday described the outbreak as the biggest domestic crisis since the Great Depression and called for the U.S. military to mobilize to help keep the health-care system from becoming overwhelmed.
“If we don’t get more ventilators in the next 10 days people will die who don’t have to die,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio, as the nation’s most populous city saw COVID-19 cases top 9,600 and deaths climbed to 63.
Nationwide, cases have topped 31,000 with at least 385 dead, according to a Reuters tally.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo urged the federal government to take over acquisition of medical supplies so states do not have to compete with each other for desperately needed resources. He also repeated a request for the Army Corps of Engineers to build temporary hospitals.
Help is not coming quickly enough, Cuomo said.
“Time matters, minutes count, and this is literally a matter of life and death,” he said. “At the same time, there is not going to be chaos, there is not going to be anarchy. Life is going to go on. Different. But life is going to go on.”
The number of cases of the highly contagious respiratory illness in the United States and Spain are exceeded only by China and Italy. Italy reported record numbers of daily coronavirus deaths last week.
“This is going to be the greatest crisis domestically since the Great Depression,” de Blasio told CNN, referring to the economic crisis of the 1930s. “This is why we need a full-scale mobilization of the American military.”
Nearly one in four Americans, or 80 million, were under orders to shelter at home as New York, California, Illinois, Connecticut and New Jersey instituted statewide lockdowns.
Around the globe, billions are adapting to a new reality, with countries like Italy, Spain and France on lockdown and several South American nations taking similar measures to try to stay ahead of the contagion, as global cases exceeded 315,000 and deaths top 13,000.
The lockdown affecting large segments of the American
public to try to curb the spread of the coronavirus is likely to last 10 to 12 weeks, or until early June, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday.
Lawmakers in Washington are nearing a deal that could pump a record US$1 trillion into the economy to limit the economic damage from the coronavirus and will vote on the bill Monday.
Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Mnuchin said the package would give an average U.S. family of four a onetime payment of US$3,000.
Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky on Sunday became the first member of the Senate to announce he had tested positive for coronavirus. At least two members of the House of Representatives previously said they tested positive.
De Blasio said the city is not getting needed medical supplies from the federal government to contend with the rapid spread of the sometimes deadly illness.
“If the president does not act, people will die who could have lived otherwise,” de Blasio told NBC.
Hospitals are scrambling for protective equipment for health-care workers and for ventilators as they brace for a wave of patients who will need help breathing as severe cases often lead to pneumonia and decreased lung function.
Over the past week, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has been pushing for aggressive steps to stem the economic hit, after Trump spent several weeks downplaying the virus’ risks.
Trump said on Twitter on Sunday that U.S. automakers Ford, General Motors and Tesla had been given the green light to produce ventilators and other items in short supply during the coronavirus outbreak.
Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on Sunday said the White House recognized the urgency of New York’s situation.
“Not only is New York trying to get resources themselves, but we’re going to be pouring it in from the federal government,” he told CBS News.
U.S. drugmaker Merck said it delivered 500,000 donated masks to New York City on Sunday morning.
Cuomo warned that 40 per cent to 80 per cent of New York state residents may eventually contract coronavirus. He chastised those who were still not practising social distancing. He noted 53 per cent of the cases in New York are between the ages of 18 and 49.
“It’s insensitive, arrogant, self-destructive ... and it has to stop, and it has to stop now,” he said. “This is not a joke and I’m not kidding.”
Reuters